There lived one man in the world, kind and intelligent. He knew the measure of everything: he was not stingy, but thrifty; lived in harmony with good people. He had an only son.
This young man was in no way like his father. He didn’t like to work and didn’t sit at home. He drops by once a week - and that’s fine! Otherwise, he spent time with his friends, lazy people just like himself: he used to eat and drink with them, and sleep with them.
The father was offended that his son was born so unlucky. He scolded him once or twice, and then one day he called him and said:
— Friendship is more valuable than anything in the world. But you should only be friends with those who are worthy of friendship. How well do you know your friends, son?
- How can you not know, father? I rely on them as much as on myself. They will not leave me either in sorrow or in joy.
“Well, if that’s the case,” says the father, “it’s clear I have nothing to worry about...
Time passed... The father worked as before, but the son still walked and caroused. One day I came home late at night, and my father was sitting silent, gloomy.
“Did anything bad happen, father?” - asked the young man:
“An evil thing has happened, my son.” and there is no one I can expect help from.
- Tell me, maybe I can help!
“Whether I say it or not, my grief will remain with me.”
- Am I not your own son? - the young man flushed.
- You are my son, but I am destined to die, and it’s better for me to die alone...
“Your trouble is my trouble,” the son objected. “And your grief is my grief.” Share your concerns with me, father.
“We can’t cope with this grief, son, even just the two of us.”
“You forget about my friends!” exclaimed the young man.
- I haven't forgotten. But can you trust them, son?
“My friends will not spare their lives for me.”
- Then look, son, what lies under our bed.
The young man bent down and saw a felt felt under the bed, and on the felt there was something covered with a black cloak. The young man turned pale.
“I accidentally killed a man,” he said.
father. “Tonight we must secretly remove his body and bury it in the ground.” You and I together won't be able to cope before dawn. Call your comrades, share our misfortune with them. Let them help.
The son went to his most beloved and faithful friend.
- How can I help in such a dangerous matter? - he said, after listening to him. “For your sake, I will remain silent, I will not betray you, but let your father get out of trouble himself.”
The young man went to his second faithful and beloved friend.
- This is dangerous! - said the friend. “No, I’m not your friend here!” And it would be better if you didn’t come to me with such a request.
The third friend, and the fourth, and the fifth also refused the young man. And these were his best friends! He returned to his father with his head bowed low.
“Well, how are you, son?” asked the father. “Why are you alone?”
The son was silent.
— Your friends refused? Now try to call my people.” And his father showed him those to whom to go for help.
Before the young man had time to return home, his father’s gray-bearded friends appeared one after another.
“Don’t kill yourself like that, don’t reproach yourself,” they reassured the owner of the house when they found out what a misfortune had happened to him. It's not your fault. You killed this man by accident. We will help you out of trouble!
“Hey, son,” the father said cheerfully. “My friends agreed to help me.” Get the burka from under the bed!
The son, with fear, pulled out the felt and threw it away.
burka, and everyone saw that hidden under the burka was a fried lamb, and fresh pasta, and honey, and foamy beer...
The old people were happy about their friend’s trick and breathed a sigh of relief. And the son was so surprised that he could not utter a word.
“This lamb fell off a cliff yesterday and injured his leg.” I killed him, it turns out, by accident. You, my good friends, deserve this humble treat. Please try it!” the owner invited, and told his old comrades how easily his faithful, beloved friends abandoned their son.
However, his father’s science did not teach the young man anything. As before, he spent his time in carousing and made friends with fellows unworthy of friendship. And now the time has come for my father to die. He called his son to him and gave him the last order.
“You remain your own master,” he said. “You didn’t listen to me during your lifetime, and you probably won’t listen at my hour of death.” Therefore, I bequeath to you only one thing: when you have squandered everything that I leave you, hang yourself on that hook built into the ceiling. I ordered it especially for you.
The old man said this, sighed and died.
The son buried his father as it should be, did not spare anything for the wake, but did not listen to his words, drank and caroused, without regret, without sparing the goods left by his father. Friends never left his house day or night...
But then it ended, his father’s wealth dried up, and this young man’s comrades began to leave him one by one...! No one else came to visit him, no one invited him to his place. And his saklya was askew, and the fence was rotten, and the yard was overgrown with thorns and weeds... A young man would marry for joy and
There was no time for carousing, he was left in poverty between four walls, alone... Wherever he looked - whether up, down, to the sides - everything was empty all around!
And then one day there was a holiday in the village. People gathered, brought all sorts of treats - whoever was rich in what - and had fun all day long.
“If I had something to take to the holiday, I would go too,” thought the young man. And then he remembered the only cockerel that had survived on his ruined farm, and he ran to catch the cockerel. But as luck would have it, out of nowhere, a kite flew in and took the cockerel away from him. The young man nevertheless went to the holiday, although he was ashamed to go empty-handed. His friends made him laugh
“Look!” they pointed with their fingers. - This parasite brought nothing!
“I had a rooster, and I wanted to bring it,” the young man justified himself, “but a kite swooped in and carried it away...
“Look, he’s making this up!” the friends mocked. “Did you have one, rooster?!”
“Well, now the very last misfortune that my father spoke about has come to me,” the young man said to himself. “Nobody needs me anymore... Why live like this, I’ll go hang myself.”
He returned home and found a rope. But as soon as he threw the rope on the hook and pulled, he fell to the floor.
A chest was built into the ceiling, its lid opened, and from there gold coins rained down on the young man’s head...
The young man took the noose from his neck and cried bitterly.
- My good father! You were wise during your life, and even after death you took care of me, a good-for-nothing!
The young man tidied up his father's house and yard and erected a new fence. He bought a couple of oxen and brought a steel plow from the market, and began to diligently plow the land.
So one day he gathered in the field. He leaves the gate and is met by his former friends. They found out that there was the same prosperity in the house, and they came to visit again.
“An amazing thing happened to me this night,” the young man told them. “Rats gnawed a hole in my steel plow.”
“What’s so surprising?” the friends answered in unison. “It happens!”
“Does it happen?” asked the young man. “Doesn’t it happen that the kite grabbed the rooster?!”
And he drove his former friends out of the yard. He made friends with good neighbors and began to work and live like all honest people live.
We didn’t see this with our own eyes, but we heard it with our own ears!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru