It happened in ancient times. One man was driving and saw people baling hay. But they are stacking in a strange way: first they put a blind fence around the future haystack, and now they are dragging a bull through this fence, which brought another load of hay. They pull and pull the ox and the cart, but they can’t get it over the fence. And they try this way and that, straining all their strength, but to no avail.
The traveler approached them and asked:
- What are you doing, good people? Why are you dragging the bull through the fence?
“Don’t you see, we’re stacking hay.” But the bull was stubborn and we couldn’t drag him over the fence.
Then the traveler approached the fence, made a gate in it and led the bull into that gate along with the hay.
The completely exhausted people were so happy and so pleased that they gave the traveler a free bull as a gift. The traveler went on his way, and for a long time they praised him among themselves in every possible way, admiring his ingenuity and extraordinary intelligence.
The traveler moves on. He walks for a long time or a short time and again sees a wonderful picture: people are taking bags filled with smoke out of the house, quickly shaking them out, again running into the house and again running out of it with the bags. It looks like they have been doing this work for quite some time.
The traveler came up and asked:
- What are you doing? What's happened?
“Yes, we lit a fire in the house, but the wood we found was damp and smoking—we took bags of smoke and took it out into the street.” But it doesn’t help much, the smoke doesn’t go away, we’re completely exhausted.
The traveler entered the house and saw: there was no stove or chimney. Then he folded the stove, made a hole in the ceiling and brought out a pipe.
The road leads the traveler further.
Again he comes across a village on his way. And he sees how one man, completely naked, then climbs to the roof of the house, then jumps down from there. This activity seemed surprising to the traveler, and he came closer. He came up and saw: pants were hanging on two stakes with the fly up, and a naked man was jumping from the roof, setting out to get his feet into the legs of his pants and put them on his bare legs in such an unusual way. It was a tricky thing: guess from such a height, don’t miss! And the man either jumped completely past his pants, or only touched them. And finally he guessed correctly, but the trousers, stretched on the stakes, could not stand it and tore.
-What are you doing, weirdo man? - asked the traveler. - Why do you need to jump from the roof like a hare?
“Yes, I wanted to put on my pants, but they couldn’t stand it, they tore,” the naked man answers.
- Is this how you should wear pants? Is it necessary to climb onto the roof?
- What about it?
The traveler showed how to put on pants.
- So simple? - The eccentric man couldn’t believe his eyes.
The traveler went his way, and the man marveled for a long time at how simply it turns out that one can manage such a tricky task as putting on pants.
The traveler's road leads further and further.
He approaches a new village and sees new miracles. He again saw people with bags, only this time they ran out of the house with empty bags, then exposed them to the sun's rays and hurriedly ran into the house. And they were so carried away by this running back and forth that they did not even notice the approaching traveler.
- What are you doing? he asked. - What's wrong with you?
“The house is very dark, so we try to collect sunlight in a bag and bring it into the house.” It’s true, no matter how much we drag it around—we’re completely exhausted—there’s no more light in the house.
The traveler entered the house, and there was pitch-dark darkness, like an eye-opener, not a single window in the whole house. Then he made windows, the sun itself came into the house, and general joy and fun began. People did not know where to seat the guest, what to treat them with and how to thank them. They endlessly admired his resourcefulness and worldly wisdom.
This is how the traveler walked and walked the endless road and shared his worldly wisdom with other people.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru