There lived an old man and an old woman in the same village. And they had three sons. They lived poorly, subsisting on bread and kvass.
The old woman died, and after her came the old man’s turn. Before his death, he called his sons and told them:
“I haven’t made a farm for you, I’ll share what I have.”
And he gave the eldest son a yellow cat, the middle one a millstone, and the youngest, Ivan, a bunch of bast for bast shoes.
He divided his goods this way, and he himself soon died. The brothers lived a little, ate their fathers’ bread and started thinking about earning money.
The older brother took the yellow cat under his arm and went around the world to look for work.
How long, how short he walked, lo and behold, he was on the road and night found him. He went into a house and asked to spend the night. They tell him:
- Oh, dear man, we are full of mice and rats - we cannot fight them off. And you, a newbie, will be completely eaten up by them.
“It’s okay,” says a passerby, “maybe I’ll spend the night sometime.”
The owner's family climbed up to sleep on the floor, and a passer-by lay down on the floor with the cat.
The owners woke up in the morning and saw a whole bunch of mice and rats on the floor, and some yellow animal was sitting next to a passer-by and was quietly purring.
And in those places people didn’t yet have cats, and they didn’t know anything about them.
They pestered a passerby:
- And brother, and little dove, sell us your little animal!
“No,” says the passerby, “this is an unsaleable animal.”
Those people told their king about the wonderful animal. The king calls a passerby to come to him. A passerby spent the night with the king for one night - the cat caught a whole mountain of mice there. The king simply does not believe his eyes.
“Ask for whatever you want,” he says to a passerby, “just sell us your animal.”
“Shower it, king, with silver, then take it.” What should the king do? I had to agree. The owner took his cat by the front legs and put him on his hind legs.
- Now shower! - he says to the king. The king poured out all his silver and showered the cat.
The passer-by took the silver and returned home. He built a good house, got a farm, got married and lives happily.
The middle brother looked at him and said:
“I, too, will go around the world with my millstones.” Maybe they will bring me happiness too.
“He took the millstones under his arms and walked away.
Whether he walked long or short, night found him on the road. He sees a hut standing on the edge of the forest. He went there - there was no one there. He climbed onto the floor with his millstones and fell asleep.
At night, robbers came to the house, poured a lot of money out of their pockets onto the floor and began to share.
Meanwhile, the passerby wanted to turn around, but accidentally pushed his millstones. And those - gibberish! - on the floor. As soon as the robbers grab hold of them, they go! They even refused money...
The passerby got down from his bed, took the money and went home. Eyu, of course, healed well, like his older brother.
The younger brother, Ivan, looked at them and said:
“It’s time for me to try my luck.”
He took his bast and went around the world. Whether the walk was long or short, the bast shoes were worn out. He sat down on a hummock in the middle of the swamp and began to cut strips from the bast to weave new bast shoes.
Suddenly a devil jumps out of the swamp. He looked at Ivan and asked:
- What are you saying, Ivan?
- Don’t you see? I twist the ropes.
- For what?
“I’ll use them to drag you devils out of the swamp and sell you at the market for a penny.” So I’ll earn money for a house. There are a dime a dozen of you here.
- Wait, Ivanka, don’t do this. Take whatever you want, just don’t drag us out of the swamp.
- Pour a hat of gold - I won’t. The devil dived into the swamp for gold, and Ivan dug a deep hole and put his holey hat on top of it.
The devil took out a bag of gold, poured it into his hat, but it didn’t even cover the bottom... The devil shook his head and brought out another bag. I poured it out and somehow filled the hat.
- Well, get up! - he says to Ivan. “I’ll help you, otherwise you won’t be able to cope on your own.”
“It’s okay,” says Ivan, “I’ll manage.” But the devil does not agree; raise your hat to him! Ivan raised his hat, and the devil saw that the money was in the hole.
“Uh, no,” the devil stomped, “you deceived me!” I’ll go to the elder: as he says, so it will be.
Damn you to your elder. He listened to him and sent the strongest devil, Krepysh, to deal with Ivan.
Krepysh jumped out of the swamp and said to Ivan:
- Whoever defeats whom will get the gold. Ivan looked at Krepysh: “It’s not very easy,” he thinks, “it’s easy to defeat you!” But he doesn’t even show that he’s scared. He looked around and saw a bear lying not far under a spruce tree.
“Well,” says Ivan to the devil, “should I fight you myself?” I'm afraid you won't be able to collect even the bones later. And there lies my old grandfather under the tree, fight him first: let’s see what strength you have.
The devil ran up to the bear.
- Hey, old man, let's fight!
The bear got up, grabbed the devil and began to choke him - he barely remained alive. He gave up fighting, ran to the elder and told him that even Ivan’s old grandfather had overcome him.
Then the elder devil sends his best runner, the Flyer, to Ivan.
He jumped out of the swamp and said to Ivan:
- Let's run in races: whoever overtakes whom will win gold.
Ivan looked around and saw a hare lying under a bush.
“Eh,” he says to the Flyer, “first you overtake my youngest son, and then try with me.”
The devil rushed towards the hare. And he got scared and rushed through the bushes - who knows where and disappeared.
The devil ran back and forth, but did not catch up with the hare. He turned back to the elder. The eldest got angry and sent a third devil to Ivan - Whistler.
Whistler jumped out of the swamp and said to Ivan:
- Whoever whistles at whom gets money.
“Okay,” says Ivan, “whistle!” The devil whistled so loudly that the swamp shook and the forest crumbled...
It was Ivan’s turn to whistle. He thought and said:
- That's it. Whistler: You better blindfold yourself, otherwise when I whistle, they’ll crawl out of your forehead.
The devil got scared and blindfolded his eyes with a handkerchief.
- Whistle! - speaks.
And Ivan raised his hammer and whistled on the devil’s forehead, and he sat down.
“Wait,” says Ivan, “I whistled quietly... Let me whistle louder one more time.”
- Oh, no! - the devil screamed. - I've had enough of this. Take your gold, but don't whistle anymore. Ivan took the gold and returned home.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru