Once upon a time there lived a father and mother, and they had three daughters. Everything would be fine, but the problem is that suitors avoid their house. The mother gets angry and the father says:
- Who would set their sights on them, except the devil!
And the devil was not averse to getting three souls. He relied heavily on women's curiosity here. So he came to his father in the guise of a lord, called himself a count and wooed his eldest daughter. The father happily agreed - who should he give it to if not such an important gentleman?! The devil took her to one of his invisible palaces and said:
“You won’t have anything to do, except for one thing—you’ll go from room to room with this golden apple, but don’t go into the twelfth room.”
The wife took the golden apple and wandered around the castle from room to room.
She approached the doors of the twelfth upper room and stopped in thought: “What if you look there? The eleven upper rooms were good, one better than the other, and this forbidden one is probably the most beautiful.” Her curiosity overcame her, and she opened the door, and behind that door the underworld opened before her, where devils torment the souls of sinners. The golden apple fell out of the hands of the curious woman, rolled into hell and burned. And suddenly great fatigue came over her, she closed the door and walked away. And the devil is running towards you.
-Where is the apple? - he screamed and pushed her into the hellish abyss.
The devil went to his father again and said to him:
- Let your second daughter come to us, otherwise my wife is bored, but she will have more fun with her sister.
Father let me go. And the same thing happened to her as to the eldest.
She looked into hell and dropped the golden apple. I saw my sister there, and she said:
“Woe to us, sister, I’m in hell, and there’s no way I can get out of here!”
Then the devil jumped up and pushed the second sister into hell, because she no longer had the golden apple.
The devil comes to his father for the third time.
- Where there are two sisters, there will be a third. Let the younger one go too: in a big company we will have even more fun!
And he took away his youngest daughter. But she turned out to be a quick-witted girl. The devil gave her a golden apple and ordered her to carry it from room to room, but did not order her to go into the twelfth room. “I know what to do,” thought the younger sister. “I’ll tie a golden apple in my apron so that it doesn’t fall out, and I’ll see what’s there behind that door. If you can’t see the sisters, it means something is wrong...” She went and opened the door to the twelfth room: and there is hell in it, and the sisters are suffering there.
- Oh, sister, save us, save us! - they both begged. “You can do anything with this damn apple.”
- Be patient a little, I will save you.
So the devil comes home and orders me to show him the golden apple. She thrust an apple under his nose, and the devil bit off his lower lip out of anger.
Once the younger sister took a large basket, went to hell and hid one of the sisters in it. The devil came home, and his wife said to him:
- Take our gift to us. They put the basket on their back and carry it, but be careful not to look into it - curiosity does not suit a man. And if you look in, I’ll immediately be behind your back and shout: “I see! I see!”
Then she taught her sister what and how to say if the devil decided to stick his nose into the basket. The devil put the basket on his back and carried the unfortunate girl to her father and mother. The burden was so heavy that he broke out in a bloody sweat.
He walked up to the threshold, threw the basket into the house and hurried away as quickly as possible.
A few days later, the younger sister prepared another basket with “gifts” for her old people, and the devil took it to her parents. Reluctantly, he undertook to carry it, but what could he do? He couldn’t contradict his wife. So the devil himself brought both sisters out of hell.
Some time passed. Once his wife said to him:
“Today I will put another basket with gifts for my old people in the entryway.” Do me a favor and take it when you get home. Just be careful not to be curious - this is the last time!
The devil got angry, but didn’t argue with his wife. And while he was away, she made a straw effigy, dressed him in her dress and placed him by the stove.
She lit a fire, thrust a shovel into the straw woman’s hands, as if she were busy at the stove, and she sat down in the basket and covered herself well.
Soon the devil came home, took the basket and said to the straw woman:
- Well, I'm off!
But on the way he was so overcome with curiosity that he could not resist looking into the basket. As soon as he touched the basket, a voice came from there: “I see, I see!”
- Okay, I won’t! - the devil grumbled and moved on. He thought that it was his wife who was scaring him from the castle.
So he approached the house, threw the basket on the ground and turned back.
He comes home, and the straw woman is still fiddling around the stove.
— I carried the basket. I hope this is the last time! - he says to the woman, but she keeps silent.
—Are you angry, or what? - the devil asked and pushed her in the side, but then the straw rustled, and the devil realized that he had been deceived. He rushed to hell, but there was no trace of his sisters. He rushed to their house, and all his power over them was gone. Out of frustration, he moved the wall so much that half the house collapsed.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru