There lived a poor man in the world. He had a cow. Time passed and the cow stopped calving. The owner decided to sell it.
He sent his son to the market to sell a cow for thirty rubles.
The boy tied a rope around the cow's horns and led her to the city.
He leads the cow around the market, looking for a buyer. The merchant comes up and says:
- Sell the calf, I’ll give you three rubles.
“It’s not a calf, but a cow,” the boy objects. “How can I give it for three rubles?”
The second merchant approached:
- Listen, boy, where are you taking the goat? Sell it for two rubles. The boy was offended and led the cow further.
The third merchant approached:
- Boy, sell me a lamb for a ruble. The boy has tears in his eyes from resentment.
- What, are you blind? What kind of lamb is this? This is a cow, and its price is thirty rubles.
The merchant laughs:
- Yes, you are obviously blind yourself. You can't see what you're selling!
“Probably everyone here is like that. Either they don’t see or don’t believe that I have a cow,” the boy thought. “I’ll give it to the first buyer for three rubles before they offer me a nickel for it!”
He gave the merchant a cow for three rubles.
The boy got a lot of trouble at home and was sent back to the merchant.
“Go and say that we only sold the cow and kept the tail for ourselves,” his father tells him. “Let him give the tail or return the cow.”
“The merchant won’t cut off the cow’s tail, he’ll bring it back,” the poor man thinks.
Yes, the merchant was not the type to feel sorry for a cow. He cut off her tail and gave it to the boy.
The poor man realized that it is not easy to outwit the deceiving merchant.
The poor man had three gold coins hidden for a rainy day. He mounted his donkey and went to the market. He drove past the shop of a deceptive merchant and threw two gold coins onto the ground, one after another. The merchant saw the coins and shouted to the poor man:
- Hey, look, you dropped the coins!
- No problem. A dozen fall out of my donkey every day! A greedy merchant ran out of the shop and looked at the donkey.
- Where did you get this? - asks the poor man.
- In our village all donkeys are like this.
- So sell it to me, you’ll get someone else there!
- You can't afford it.
- Maybe it’s affordable, how much are you asking for it?
“Will you give me enough money to bury a donkey head over heels?”
“Okay, I’ll give it to you!” the merchant agrees.
The poor man took the money, gave it to the donkey and punished:
- Lock him in a barn for a week, see what wealth he brings - the barn will be filled with gold.
The poor man returned home happy, and the greedy merchant locked the donkey in a stable.
A week has passed. The merchant began to open the door to the barn, but it did not open - something was in the way. The merchant was delighted and thought that the entire barn was filled with gold coins. He called his wife and children. Everyone leaned together on the door, it swung open, and the merchant flew straight onto a dead donkey. He died of hunger.
The merchant realized that he had been deceived, and rushed headlong to the village to deal with the poor man. And the poor man is already waiting for the merchant.
He ordered his wife to cook pilaf, shish kebab, and fry chicken. He buried it all in the yard in three different places.
A merchant rushes in, shouts, and threatens to kill the poor man’s entire family.
The poor man didn’t even raise an eyebrow.
“Have you ever heard of killing people because of a donkey,” he says calmly. “It doesn’t matter, if I’m dead, I’ll bring you another!” Better sit down, have lunch with me, let’s talk, discuss everything calmly.
With these words, he stuck a shovel into the ground where the pilaf was buried and pulled out the cauldron. I stuck a shovel in another place and took out a kebab. The third time he stuck the shovel in, turned out the clod of earth and took out the fried chicken.
The merchant was speechless, his eyes widened in surprise: what kind of miracles are these, where does food come from in the land?
Meanwhile, the poor man's wife spread out the tablecloth. She invited the guest to taste whether the shovel cooks deliciously.
— Why a shovel? - the merchant was amazed.
- And she’s magical with us! He gets any food from the ground.
“Sell me a shovel,” the merchant asks the poor man.
“I’m sorry to part with her, she feeds us.” So be it, I’ll give it to you - take it for a hundred rubles.
The merchant brought a shovel home, called his wife into the yard, wants to surprise her and please her. He dug up the entire yard - no food anywhere!
- The man fooled me again! - the merchant yelled. “Okay, I’ll show him!”
He ran to the poor man, pounced on him, knocked him down, tied his arms and legs and took him to drown in the sea. He dragged him to the shore and went to look for a boat so that he could sail further and drown the poor man somewhere deeper.
As soon as the merchant disappeared from sight, a shepherd approached the unfortunate poor man. He was grazing sheep nearby and saw everything.
“Why were you tied up?” asks the shepherd.
“I bought a lamb from you, invited the merchant to visit, and treated him to barbecue.” And now the merchant says that I fed him dog meat! Untie my arms and legs, help me, otherwise I’ll tell the merchant that I bought meat from you and he’ll blow your head off.
The shepherd freed the poor man from his bonds, and he ran away faster than the wind. The shepherd stood and went to his sheep.
The merchant returned, but there was no trace of the poor man, only the rope was lying around. He looked around, saw a shepherd and realized that it was he who helped the poor man. The merchant ran up to the shepherd, grabbed him and dragged him to the boat. The merchant threw the shepherd into the boat and let's row away from the shore.
As the boat sailed further away, the shepherd jumped to his feet and pushed the merchant into the sea. There was no way to wait until the merchant drowned him!
Maybe the greedy merchant drowned, or maybe not, but he never came to the poor man anymore.1 Star
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru