In one house, the owner used to ask his wife every evening what each member of the household had done that day. After that, he divided the dinner and the bread baked for the evening fairly - as much as you worked, you got as much food.
The time had come for the owner to marry his son, and he wanted to marry a good and kind girl, but a terrible lazy woman. The owner of the house was warned not to let his idle daughter-in-law enter the door, but the old man said:
“It’s okay, I’ll make sure that she herself and of her own free will will work no worse than us.”
They had a wedding, and the newlyweds lived with the groom's parents. Every evening the owner of the house listened to his wife’s story about who had done what that day, and divided the bread and dinner fairly. Day after day, the daughter-in-law went to bed hungry. And then she came to her senses and began to work no worse than the rest.
She once went into the forest for brushwood and, returning back with an armful behind her, met her brothers on the road who were going to visit her. She was delighted to see them, greeted them, but immediately warned with concern:
- If you are going to my house, then take a few logs or an armful of brushwood in your hands, because your father-in-law will not give you a piece of bread for dinner if you did not work today.
“Don’t worry, dear sister,” the brothers answered her, laughing. “Your father-in-law won’t leave us without dinner, because we are guests, but what made you such a hard worker, I would like to know?” Apparently, a piece of bread taught even a lazy person like you to work.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru