During serfdom, there was a very cruel elder on one estate. He tormented the peasants in every possible way, tormented them with corvee labor. That year there was a severe shortage of crops, and when threshing was going on on the estate, the corvee workers brought small bags with them from home, poured grain into the landowner's barn and carried it home. And the headman got wind of this and began to watch for them behind the barn at night. Whoever was caught was given twenty sticks each on Saturday evening.
Finally, one burly man decided to teach the headman a lesson. He hid himself not far from Riga and is waiting for the headman. The other threshers on the threshing floor had already laid out the planting and began to thresh. Soon the headman arrives and, as is his custom, keeps watch around the corner. The man quietly crept up to the headman from behind, grabbed him by the collar, threw him on his back and ran as fast as he could towards the lake. When he ran ashore, the rooster crowed. The man pulled himself up and threw the elder into the lake. And he himself, without even crossing himself, ran back to Riga.
The next day, the whole estate knew how last night the devil had carried the headman away from the barn and thrown him into the water. The men who served corvée for the landowner laughed, and the servants believed.
From that time on, the headman never watched for men at night outside Riga.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru