Once upon a time there was a fool named Bango. Bango was very stupid and everyone deceived him. One day he met two thieves, and they persuaded him to rob the house of a rich merchant with them. Bango and the thieves set off on their journey. They arrived at the place in the evening, but it was still light, and they had to wait until it got dark. When it became completely dark, the thieves said:
“You will climb into the house through the hole we made in the wall and give us everything you find.” Fine?
Bango agreed, but first asked:
– What should I take there?
“Carry whatever is heavier,” his comrades answered him. Bungo went inside and tiptoed along the wall in the pitch darkness. Suddenly he came across something hard. I tried to lift it - it was hard. “So this is what my friends were talking about!” he thought and smiled with joy.
Bango took out the heavy thing, gave it to his comrades and went back to the house, but the thieves stopped him:
- Well, you’re stupid, Bungo! You took out the stone. What good is it?
“You yourself told me to take something heavier,” Bango was offended.
“That’s right, but it’s a stone, and we don’t need stones,” the thieves answered angrily.
- What should I take now? - asked Bungo.
- Take what is white.
Bango went into the house again and began to search. He searched and searched, and finally he came across some white thing. Bungo picked her up and carried her outside. His friends are looking - and this is just a basket of white fluff.
- Woe be with you, Bungo! Well, why do we need this fluff? - exclaimed the distressed thieves.
“It’s your own fault, I did as you told me,” answered Bango, without feeling any guilt.
“Okay, go back to the house and now take red things,” the thieves told him: they needed gold.
Bungo sighed, but walked again and soon saw something red. “Well, this time I won’t be mistaken,” thought Bungo. He didn't know that it was coal still smoldering in the stove. He took off the bandage from his head, tied the coals in it and carried it away. The coals burned through the fabric and began to fall one after another to the ground. Every time an ember fell, Bungo exclaimed:
- Oh, it fell!
Then the owners woke up from the noise and began to shout:
- Hey, who's there?
“It’s me, Bango,” answered the fool.
- What are you doing?
“I’m stealing,” answered Bango.
His comrades heard this and rushed to run without looking back. They ran and scolded stupid Bango:
- What a fool, what a cudgel!
The owners became curious about who this strange thief was. They came out with lanterns and weapons and saw Bungo dusting off his clothes.
Bango was frightened when he saw the armed people and wanted to run away, but they grabbed him and said:
-Where are you rushing to? Tell us what happened.
And Bungo told them everything - about the stone, which he took for a valuable thing, about the white object, which later turned out to be a simple basket of fluff, and about the red coals.
People died laughing listening to his story, and then they suggested:
– Don’t go stealing from other people’s houses anymore, better stay here with us. Want?
Bango agreed and stayed to live in this house. And over time he became as smart as all people.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru