A couple lived in the same village, and they had a daughter of marriageable age. The bride's father wanted to find a son-in-law who, no matter what happens, would not utter swear words.
Soon a guy was found who was not averse to marrying a pretty girl. The bride's father said that he would consent to the wedding only if the groom under no circumstances cursed. The guy swore that not a single swear word would ever escape his tongue.
And now the time has come for the guy to serve his due time with the bride’s father.
On the first day, the girl’s father ordered his future son-in-law to harness a couple of oxen to the plow and plow the field.
“At noon I will bring you something to eat,” said the old man. “Wait for me, unharness the oxen and rest yourself.”
The guy went to the field. While working, he didn’t even notice that noon had come. The guy was terribly hungry, but there was no food, and the bride’s father was nowhere to be seen on the road. Meanwhile, the crafty peasant leisurely dined, then spent a long time fiddling around with the housework and only in the evening brought the guy food. Although his stomach was growling from hunger, he pretended to be not at all tired and happy with everything. He thanked his future father-in-law and started eating.
The next day, the cunning peasant was again late for lunch. A little before reaching the field, he hid behind a large tree and began to spy on the guy, and he, as if nothing had happened, kept plowing and plowing, even though he was again terribly hungry. “Will he really endure it, won’t he curse out of frustration?” - thought the peasant. He decided to wait a little longer, but did not receive a single swear word from the guy. When the guy finally saw that they had brought him food, he just smiled and began to unharness the bull.
On the third day, the groom went out into the field early again. He worked hard all day, was very hungry and could barely stand on his feet from fatigue, sweat was pouring off him, and the cunning old man was in no hurry to feed him. It was here that the guy could not stand it and cursed the harmful old man in his heart. Well, he stood behind a large tree and, of course, heard everything.
– You violated our agreement and did not pass the test! – said the father of the bride. “So go in all four directions.”
The unlucky groom had to leave with nothing.
Time passed, and another guy came to see the bride’s father. He knew what failure befell the first groom, and yet he decided to test fate, and even his ingenuity. Besides - and this is the main thing - he really liked the pretty daughter of a peasant.
The bride's father decided to subject the new groom to the same tests as the first: he sent his field to plow, promised to bring food at noon, but he himself stayed long after noon. However, he did not take into account that the guy was not a simpleton, he quietly grabbed a bundle of food with him and refueled properly at lunchtime. After that, he started plowing again. When his future father-in-law arrived, he was cheerful and friendly. He thanked him for the food and began to eat with a satisfied look.
On the second day the same thing happened again. And on the third day the peasant appeared at sunset. Imagine his surprise when he saw that the guy, along with his friends, was busily skinning the carcasses of bulls!
The peasant attacked him with reproaches and abuse, but he, not the least bit embarrassed, explained:
“I’ve been plowing nonstop on these bulls since early morning, still waiting for you.” I don’t care for any kind of work, but the bulls couldn’t stand it and fell down dead. There was nothing to do, I had to run to the village for friends so that they could help me skin the carcasses. Don't let the goodness go to waste! Tomorrow early in the morning we will go to the market, sell the meat, and with the proceeds we will buy new bulls, and I will finish plowing the field.
The bride's father had no choice but to silently accept his annoyance. Moreover, he also had to carry meat on his shoulders. However, after this incident he disliked the smart guy and in the evening he said to his wife:
- Listen, mother! Although this guy is very hard-working and also not gluttonous, I think he is not at all suitable for us to be a son-in-law. He only plowed for about three days, but he already managed to kill both of my bulls. Just look, he will ruin us completely! We need to come up with something and get rid of him as quickly as possible.
The wife agreed with her husband and began to think about how to get rid of the unwanted groom. She thought and thought and finally came up with:
- Tell the groom that tomorrow morning you and he will go hunting to catch turtles. You, they say, will be the hunter, and he will be the hunting dog. You'll see, the guy will get angry and curse you.
The husband praised his wife for her invention. He just didn’t know that the guy had overheard their conversation from beginning to end.
At night, a guy went to a hunter he knew, bought several live turtles from him, then climbed a hill and tied the turtles to bushes and trees.
In the morning, the owner announced that he was going hunting, and was taking the guy with him instead of the dog. The groom silently nodded his head. He ran ahead, and the owner-hunter walked sedately behind, carrying a basket for turtles and a flask of water. The owner looks businesslike, but the guy is having fun; he pretends to be a dog so diligently that it’s fun to watch: he runs ahead, he trails behind, he barks loudly, he sniffs out something in the grass. From time to time he brought the owner a turtle, and soon the basket was full.
At noon the owner said:
“It’s time for me to rest and refresh myself.” Once we eat, I’ll throw you some leftovers.
And it seemed that nothing could get through the groom. As soon as the owner unwrapped the banana leaves in which the food was wrapped, the guy, with a loud bark, rushed at someone's buffaloes grazing nearby and drove them straight towards the owner's field. The owner was afraid that the buffalos would trample down the rice. Forgetting about food, he rushed across the buffaloes and started driving them away. The guy, don’t be a fool, instantly dealt with the food that the owner left unattended. The owner returned and looked - the food had disappeared, only banana leaves were lying around. Hungry, angry and tired, he trudged home - what a thrill!
At home, he told his wife how his smart guy had cheated him.
“Don’t be sad,” his wife consoled him. “Try to do the opposite tomorrow: let him be a hunter, and you a dog.” As soon as he gapes, you contrive and eat all the food. He will probably scold you out of frustration.
The next day, as soon as it was dawn, the treacherous peasant woke up the groom and ordered him to get ready to hunt again and catch turtles. This time the guy was very happy when he found out that today the old man would pretend to be a dog. They climbed the hill, the groom left his stick and an empty basket under a tree, and took food wrapped in banana leaves and a flask of water with him. He forced the old man to rush back and forth, while he slowly devoured the food and washed it down with water. Until noon, the owner ran from bush to bush, but did not find a single turtle. The poor guy could barely stand on his feet from fatigue; he wanted to drink and eat, but the guy didn’t give him a break.
- Look, what a stupid dog! – the groom said kindly. “I didn’t catch a single turtle!”
Finally, with a hoarse bark, the owner ran back to the house, but the guy, who was not at all tired, instantly caught up with him, gave him a good kick and shouted:
- Oh, you worthless dog! I didn’t catch a single turtle, but I already decided to run home!
The owner didn’t even have the strength to snap back. Not daring to raise his eyes to the groom, he silently trudged home. And at home he said to his wife:
- Oh, mother! What a nasty dog I was today! “I haven’t caught a single turtle.” And he added angrily: “Let’s drive away this impudent guy.”
“You can’t do anything rashly,” the wife reasoned with the treacherous old man. “Think about what we will tell this guy’s parents if we drive him away for no reason at all?” You can't break the agreement. We need to come up with something smarter.
The wife became thoughtful and suggested a new trick:
- Let's do this: take two bags, pour rice into one bag, and climb into the other bag yourself. Tomorrow morning I'll have the guy take these bags to Elephant Mountain and then bring them back. The work is hard, and also meaningless, it will make anyone roar and start cursing at the top of their lungs.
The owner praised his wife for her invention and decided to do as she advised. It never occurred to him that the guy had overheard their conversation again.
The next day the hostess woke up the guy early and said:
“You were still sleeping when the owner got up and went to Elephant Mountain to negotiate with the woodcutters. He will be waiting for you there. He told you to tell him to take those two bags of rice up that mountain to the lumberjacks for work. But if you don’t find the owner, you’ll have to drag the bags back. Understood?
The guy silently lifted the heavy beam onto his shoulders, with a bag on each side, and set off on the road. Halfway he had to pass a bridge over a wide river. The guy stepped onto the bridge, took a few steps and suddenly began to groan and groan:
- Oh-oh-oh, how tired I am, how tired I am! Perhaps I'll sit down to rest a little.
The guy began to fan himself with his pointed hat so that the owner, sitting in the sack, would think that he had really sat down to rest. Suddenly the guy grabbed the yoke and started pounding it as hard as he could on the wooden deck of the bridge and began to wail in a heart-rending voice:
- Oh, woe, woe to me, the unfortunate one! Who left their elephant unattended? Oh! Now the elephant will break the yoke! Ooh-oh! The elephant is about to get to my bags of rice!
The guy screams, and he himself kicks the bag in which the insidious old man is hiding. Then he screams at the top of his lungs:
- Oh! The elephant stole the biggest bag!
With these words, the guy dragged the bag across the bridge, raised it higher and slammed it onto the wooden deck of the bridge! The owner, sitting in the sack, howled in pain and began to twitch. Then the guy exclaimed in surprise:
-What kind of miracles? Who's moving there?
- It's me! I! - the owner responded. He was afraid that things would get worse for him.
The guy quickly untied the bag and saw that the owner was sitting in it. He began to feign lament, as if he really felt terribly sorry for his master:
- How did you, dear master, end up in a bag? A little more and you would have been finished.
“You see,” the owner answered embarrassedly, scratching his bruised areas, “I decided to climb into the bag so as not to have to walk to Elephant Mountain.” This mountain is far away, so this idea came to my mind. It's good that he survived. Okay, let's go back!
The guy poured half of the rice from one bag into another - now he had to carry half as much - and headed home, smiling contentedly. And the owner trudged along behind him, his head bowed low. He felt just like a beaten dog.
That same evening, the couple decided that they had to quickly marry their daughter to this guy, otherwise he would kill them both.
The bride's friends, friends of the groom, relatives and neighbors came to the wedding. The groom hid several girls in advance in a room where no one looked, and he himself greeted the guests, holding in his hands a very beautiful cane, prepared the day before.
The guests sat down in their places, and the groom called the bride to pour coconut milk for each guest. Then he lightly hit her on the shoulder with his cane and ordered her to leave.
After some time, he called the bride again, because it was time to serve the tray with refreshments. Imagine the surprise of the guests when another girl came out to them, dressed exactly the same as the previous one, only younger than her. When the girl carried the tray around the guests, the groom lightly hit her on the shoulder with his cane and ordered her to leave.
The guests tasted the treats and began to wait for the next dish to be brought. The groom called the bride, and a girl even younger than the previous one came out to the guests... And this was repeated many times. The girl who came out to pour tea for the guests turned out to be very young and very pretty.
My father-in-law looked at all this and couldn’t believe his eyes. Then he asks his son-in-law in his ear:
– Where are these girls from, one more beautiful than the other?
– Don’t you recognize your daughter? – the groom was surprised. “It’s she who comes out to the guests every time!”
Then the groom slapped his forehead with his palm, as if he had finally figured out why the father-in-law did not recognize his daughter:
- Forgive me, father. I completely forgot to say that my cane is not simple, but magical. If you hit a woman with it, she will immediately look several years younger. You yourself saw how your own daughter became younger before your eyes.
The father-in-law had doubts, but then he thought that he had really seen everything with his own eyes, and therefore there could be no trick here. Then he asked his son-in-law to lend him a magic cane for a while.
“Take it, father, use it for your health,” the guy responded readily.
My father-in-law grabbed the magic cane and quickly ran into the house. He sees his wife lying down and resting. The cunning old man swung his cane and let’s woo his wife with it! She howled in pain and began calling her neighbors for help. But her husband still doesn’t let up, he beats her heartily, and at the same time keeps saying:
- Be patient a little, wife, be patient! This magical cane was given to me by my dear son-in-law. I want you, my smart, sensible wife, to become young again!
Finally, the old man calmed down, looked and wondered: why didn’t his wife become younger from this kind of thrashing?!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru