One old man's wife died. He grieved, and he married a widow - nothing can be done, he needs a mistress in the house. The old man and his new wife each had a daughter. The stepmother disliked her stepdaughter and tormented her in every possible way. The father believed what his wife said about his own daughter and undeservedly offended her. They brought the girl to the point where she could not stand it and ran away in a lei. At that time, the prince’s son was hunting in the forest. He met a girl, and he liked her so much that he took her as his wife.
The old man became concerned about the long absence of his daughter—after all, a father—and went to look for her in the forest. He wandered through the forest for a long time, thinking of at least burying her bones, but he never found anything. Returning home, he passed by the princely palace and suddenly saw his daughter on the balcony. She called him to her place and told him everything that had happened to her, fed him, gave him something to drink and sent him home with a bag of gold.
An old man approaches the house, and from under the gate a puppy barks and says: “The owner is bringing gold and silver, yip-yap, gold and silver, yap-yap!”
The old man's wife got angry with the puppy:
-What are you yapping about? Say: “The old man is carrying the knuckles!” She grabbed a stick and started hitting the puppy, and he, know what he said:
“The owner is bringing gold and silver, yip-yap!”
Meanwhile, an old man entered the courtyard with a bag of gold and silver.
His wife asks him:
-Where does this wealth come from?
“My daughter gave this to me,” he answered and told everything that happened to her.
The greedy woman was seized with black envy.
“Take,” she says, “my daughter and leave her in the forest.” Let him get rich too.
The old man did not contradict his wife. He took his stepdaughter into the forest and left her there, and he returned. The next morning his wife pestered him:
- Go into the forest and take a bigger bag with you.
The old man walked for a long time, finally came to the place where he left his stepdaughter, and sees only her bones gnawed by wolves. He collected them and put them in a bag.
Here he comes to the house, and the puppy comes out from under the gate:
- The owner carries bones and knuckles, yap-yap, bones and knuckles, yap-yap!
The evil woman heard what the puppy was yapping about, and with a stick, with a stick!
– You’re not yapping! Say: “The old man is carrying gold and silver!”
But the puppy does not listen to her, but continues: “Bones and knuckles!”
The old man brought a bag and poured the bones out of it at his wife’s feet.
“This is what’s left of your daughter!”
Here a woman began to be tormented over her dead daughter, but who is to blame for that if not she herself? It has been said that greed does not go unpunished.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru