Once upon a time there lived a poor old man with his blind old woman. They had no children, only a dog and a cat. The animals lived together, followed each other like a shadow follows a man, and served their masters faithfully. When the old man leaves the house, he and the old woman guard the house and don’t let strangers get close. The old people cherished their favorites more than treasures; they did not beat or scold them. With a dog and a cat, life was not so sad for them, the unfortunate ones.
Once an old man went to the mountains to mow grass. He goes back and looks - there is a black snake lying on the ground, apparently hungry, unable to move. The old man took pity on the snake, hid it in his bosom, and went his way. I came home, took the snake out, and fattened it up. But then one day the old man says to her:
- Get out of our house, snake. We've run out of rice, there's no more grass - we have nothing to feed you with!
The snake nodded its head and said:
- Good grandfather, if it weren’t for you, I would have died of hunger. Yes, I don’t know how to thank you. All I have is my own tail. Take it, put it in a wooden box and bury it away so that no one else can see it. And when you need money, shake it and coins will fall out of the tail.
The old man agreed. And as soon as he cut off the snake’s tail, it disappeared. The old man put the snake's tail in a wooden box, and buried the box behind the kitchen, where no one else looked.
As soon as the money is transferred from the old people, they will dig up the treasured box, take out the snake’s tail, shake it, and the copper coins will tinkle on the floor. The old man will collect coins, go to the market, buy oil, salt, rice, brushwood. He returns home and cooks food. He will cook it and divide it into four parts: one for the old woman, another for the dog, a third for the cat, and a fourth for himself. So they lived, not knowing any need.
But one day a traveling merchant knocked on the door of the old people. He was afraid to walk along the road alone on a dark night, so he asked to spend the night. The old man let him in.
And the next day, before dawn, the old man walked quietly behind the kitchen, took out a snake tail from the box, and shook it. And the coppers fell to the ground. All you can hear is: jiang-tseyang-hua-lan. The merchant saw all this through the window. As soon as the old man left the house, he immediately jumped up, dug up the precious box, put it in the basket, lifted the yoke and walked away.
The old man returned home, and the old woman was crying, so pitifully. The old man asks:
- What trouble happened?
And the old woman answers:
- A traveling merchant took away our precious box!
The old man didn't believe it:
-What are you doing, old man? I buried her far and deep. How could he find her? Apparently, you were looking in the wrong place.
The old man said so and went into the kitchen himself. I searched and searched and found nothing.
The old man and the old woman became sad. The old man sighs heavily, and the old woman bursts into tears. Just then the cat and dog came back from the yard to have breakfast with their owners. And the owners have sad faces, frowning eyebrows, the cat and dog sense that trouble has happened, but they don’t know what kind of trouble. The old man looked at them, sighed and said:
— The villainous merchant took away our box. Run quickly! We need to catch up with him! “Let’s run, maybe we’ll catch him,” the dog said to the cat, “see how our benefactors are being killed!”
They jumped out of the house and hit the road. They go, sniff out everything, look out - there is no precious box anywhere. And they decided to go to the merchant. And his house stood across the river.
They approached the river, the river was seething, the waves were foaming on it. The cat cowered into a ball with fear.
“Don’t be afraid,” the dog encourages her, “somehow we’ll get to the other side, I know how to swim.” And it’s better for us not to return home without the box.
The cat saw that the dog was so brave, she became brave and jumped on her back. They swam across the river and found themselves in a small village. They walk through the village, look into every yard, and don’t miss a single one. Suddenly they see a large house standing in the courtyard, with people visible and invisible, some in red, some in green, getting ready for a wedding. And they recognized the groom as the same merchant who spent the night with the old man.
“Go into the house,” the dog says in the cat’s ear, “find out where the merchant buried the treasured box.” I would go myself, but I’m afraid they’ll notice me. And when you find out, immediately run outside the outskirts, I will wait for you under the willow tree.
The cat nodded her head, meowed, climbed onto the roof, jumped straight from the roof into the yard, and from the yard, through a small window, crawled into the bedroom. The cat is looking for the treasured box, it has searched all the corners and is nowhere to be found. The cat sat down under the bed and wondered what to do. Suddenly he sees that a mouse has crawled out of the chest that was in the bedroom. The cat rushed at her, and the mouse trembled in the cat’s paws, asking to be let go. The cat says to her with an indifferent look:
“If you help me with one thing, I’ll let you go.” “I’ll do everything, queen cat, just order,” the mouse squeaked. “Climb into the master’s chest, see if there’s a wooden box there.” If you find it, quickly bring it here.
The mouse climbed into the chest, instantly pulled out the treasured box and, with a low bow, handed it over to the cat. The cat grabbed the box and ran away.
The merchant saw the cat and shouted:
- Hold the cat! She stole the treasure! Hold her!
People rushed after the cat, and she darted through the wall, and that was all they saw. She ran to the outskirts, and there her dog was waiting under a willow tree, and they set off on their way back. They can't be happier. When they approached the river, the dog strictly ordered the cat:
“If you see a fish or a crayfish, be careful not to open your mouth, otherwise you’ll drop the box into the water.”
Now the cat was no longer afraid to swim across the river. She sat solemnly on the dog’s back and imagined how her owners would thank her. They swam to the middle of the river, and suddenly they saw fish frolicking in the water. The cat even began to salivate, she couldn’t stand it and screamed:
- Oh, so many fish!
Squish - the box fell into the water and sank.
“I told you not to open your mouth and keep quiet.” What should we do now?
A dog and a cat swam to the shore, left the cat, and returned to the middle of the river. She forcibly pulled the precious box out of the water.
The dog was tired, sat down to rest, closed her eyes and did not notice how she dozed off. Meanwhile, the cat grabbed the box and ran home.
The old man saw that the cat had brought the box, was delighted, and rushed to the old woman to tell her the good news. And they began vying with each other to praise the cat: how dexterous and agile she was. The old man opened the box, took out a snake tail, shook it - copper coins fell onto the floor and jingled. The old man bought all sorts of things, prepared various tasty dishes, and began to treat the cat. The cat sat down more comfortably, but before she could start eating, she saw a dog running.
- Oh, you parasite! All you know is to fill your belly! — the owner attacked her.
And the cat is gobbling it up. At least she could say a word. The dog really wanted to drink and eat, but she didn’t get anything tasty, so she had to be content with the leftover soup and rice.
Since then the dog hated the cat. As soon as he sees him, he immediately tries to grab him by the throat. And so their enmity began.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru