The camp stopped not far from the village. And near the village, at the very edge of it, there was a chapel, and next to it a crooked birch tree grew.
One gypsy from the camp is sleeping and hears someone pushing him in the side:
- Get up, gypsy!
The gypsy woke up and saw an old man standing in front of him - all gray and with a beard to his waist.
- Go to the chapel, gypsy, there is a treasure buried under a crooked birch tree. Full gold hunting boot. This treasure is registered to you. The deadline is already running out. Go open it and take it.
The old man said and disappeared. In the morning the gypsy told his relatives about how the old man came to him at night, and they laughed at him:
- You want to go and disgrace yourself. What treasure? There's nothing there. Someone is making fun of you.
One way or another, the gypsy did not go to the indicated place. And the camp drove on.
The next night the old man comes to this gypsy again and says:
- Why are you not listening, my dear? Or do you not need the treasure? You'll have to go back...
The next morning the gypsy again told his relatives about the old man.
“I was nearby, but I didn’t dig, but why do you need to go now?”
Tell the king, they laughed at the gypsy, and he didn’t go anywhere. And then I forgot about the treasure.
How much or how little time passed - God knows, it just happened that the camp was again on the edge of the village near which the chapel stood.
The gypsy remembered the old man who came to him at night, and remembered the treasure.
“Let me go,” he thinks, “I’ll go and cleanse my Soul.”
The gypsy said nothing to anyone and went to the place that the old man had once told him about. He approached the chapel, stood under a crooked birch tree and began to dig. I dug up a hunting boot, looked into it, and there were only broken shards lying there.
“So, my relatives were right to laugh at me,” the gypsy said to himself and was just getting ready to go back when he saw that old man standing in front of him:
- Oh, you gypsy! He himself disowned his happiness. Your treasure is long past its due date.
I told you when I had to take him, but you didn’t listen to me.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru