Once upon a time there lived an old man. He had two daughters and three sons. He married off his daughters, and they scattered from their native nest. The old man and his sons remained to live. Only here’s the problem: he was completely blind and couldn’t do anything without the help of his sons. One day the brothers gathered in the field, and they said to the old man:
“We’ll go plow, and you sit in the yard and guard the wheat so that the birds don’t eat it.”
“I can’t do this kind of work,” the old man replies. “I won’t keep track of the birds.”
“Listen better,” the sons teach, “you’re not deaf:
Birds will fly in and beat the bags with their wings, and you will hear them.
They gave my father a long bamboo stick to drive away the birds, planted it in the middle of the yard and left.
They returned in the evening and saw an old man sitting, waving a stick in different directions, and the birds were still pecking at the wheat.
The sons got angry:
- Why did we leave you to guard? What good are you? The old man cried, but did not answer his sons. And they began to hold advice among themselves.
“Our father is nothing but losses!” - says the eldest.
- There is no use from him! - echoes the middle one.
- Our father has lived in this world! - the younger one assents. “If he died,” the brothers began to dream, “they would divide all his wealth among themselves and live without any hassle.” So they were up to no good.
One morning the sons came to their father and said:
“Today, father, we decided to go to a distant island to do a little fishing.” Come with us. Fresh air and ears won't hurt you.
The old man rejoiced:
“I’ve been wanting to eat fragrant ears for a long time!”
They got into the boat and sailed to the rocky island. We caught fish there, and it turned out to be a great fish soup. And when it began to get dark, the sons said to their father:
- Are you tired, I suppose? Go to bed, get some sleep, and when we get ready, we’ll wake you up.
The old man trusted his sons, lay down and fell asleep. And when I woke up the next morning, I started calling them. But no one answered him. The father realized that his children had been left on a wild island to wait for death by starvation. And then the sea began to boil, high waves rose, and a cold wind blew. The waves began to crash against the rocks, and one rose to the very top of the island and washed the old man into the sea.
And at this very time, the daughters of the old men came from the city to visit their father. They brought him all sorts of gifts, apparently and invisibly. They knocked on the house - there was no answer. The daughters were surprised and went to a neighbor.
— Has something happened to our father? - they ask. “He promised to wait for us at home.”
The neighbor shrugged:
“I don’t know, I don’t know what happened to your father.” I just saw how yesterday he and his sons were getting ready to go fishing, and in the evening the children returned without their father. Maybe he fell ill on the way?
The daughters ran to the sea. They decided that their father had died in the depths of the waters. And if so, the sea will carry his body to the shore. They examined all the coastal rocks but found nothing. They sat down by the water and began to cry. Suddenly they see a lonely rock sticking out in the sea not far from the island, and on that rock... the father is sitting, saddened.
- Father, father! - the daughters shouted. - Alive! Alive! They hired a boat and brought my father home.
- How did you end up on the rock? - the daughters began to ask. “What happened to you?”
The old man sighed and said:
“I didn’t think that my sons would think of destroying me.” They lured me to a wild island and abandoned me, while they sailed home. A storm arose in the sea, a large wave washed me off the cliff, and I almost died.
- How did you manage to escape? - The daughters were surprised.
“As soon as I fell into the sea and began to drown,” the old man said, “a large shark swam up to me, put me on its back and took me to a lonely rock.
“Thank you, shark,” the daughters began to thank, “for saving our father.”
They went ashore and saw that in the distance there was indeed a large shark swimming.
“We should thank her,” said the old man. The daughters brought a young bull to the shore. A shark swam up, took the goby and disappeared into the depths of the sea. And at that very moment the old man suddenly regained his sight and began to see no worse than before. There was no end to the joy! They took their father's daughters by the hands and led them home.
But their father’s sons didn’t even think about looking; they divided the old man’s wealth and decided to celebrate their unexpected luck. They loaded all sorts of treats into the boat and sailed out to sea for fish. They got out into the open sea, but as soon as they cast the net, it became dark all around and the wind rose. The boat rocked from side to side, and then completely turned over. The brothers are floundering in the water, calling for help, but who will hear them? And so the evil sons perished in the depths of the sea. And the old man’s daughters took them to live in the city. And they lived together happily ever after.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru