Whether they tell the truth or not, I won’t lie, I just heard this story from my grandfather, and he heard it from his grandmother. My grandfather was dead for one hundred and twenty years, and his grandmother lived even longer. They didn't count the years back then.
There was such a place - Empty Forest. People say that Ilya Muromets lived in this place. Only that was a long time ago, and our business happened later.
There was an estate in those parts, and in it there was a rich gentleman with his mistress. And then one day an old gypsy knocks on this gentleman’s gate:
- Open up, master, there’s something to do.
They opened the gates for him, let him in, and began asking questions:
- Who are you, what are you, and why did you come? The gypsy pulls out an ancient scroll from his bosom and shows it to the master. The master unrolled the scroll and saw: in front of him was a map of his own estate, and on it there were arrows, all sorts of crosses, and below the inscription: Measure from the porch so many fathoms and so many arshins. The master was delighted and ordered to feed the old gypsy man and give him something to drink.
And on this map the treasure was marked, and not just a treasure, but a whole chest of gold. The gypsy ate, drank, thanked the master for the treat, got up from the table and said:
“When it gets dark, we’ll go dig up the treasure, just remember, master, we’ll go together, don’t take the lady.” The master agreed, then the gypsy asked:
- What will you give me, master, for bringing you to your place?
- Let's find the treasure - our happiness! I won't skimp. No sooner said than done. The master and the gypsy came out onto the porch, and they began to measure out fathoms and arshins. They reach the place. They started digging. They dug up a chest of gold. They were just about to open it when they heard a lady screaming from the window.
- Let me come to you to look at such a miracle!
“You can’t,” the master shouts in response.
The lady did not listen to her husband. She came up and stood next to her unnoticed. The gypsy and the master opened the chest, and it was full of red gold. The master put his hands into the chest, scooped up two handfuls and filled the gypsy’s pockets to the brim. The lady's eyes widened. Lord,” she thought, “such a treasure has been dug up in our lands, on our land, and we must share it with some gypsy vagabond!”
As soon as she thought so, the wind rose and a storm began. The storm dumped the chest into a hole and leveled it with earth. The master saw his wife and understood what was the matter. He grabbed a saber, jumped up to his wife, waved the blade and shouted:
– Confess what you thought at that moment?
“So and so, so and so,” answered the frightened lady. – I regretted this gold for the gypsy.
In general, in short, the only gold that survived was what the master managed to put in the gypsy’s pocket. The gypsy takes coins out of his pocket and says:
- Take the gold, barias, leave me only ten rubles, and everything will be fine.
“No,” said the master, “it’s not your fault that the treasure was lost!”
I never took a single coin from the gypsy.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru