There was an old man and an old woman; They had three sons: two were smart, the third was Ivanushka the Fool. The smart ones tended the sheep in the field, but the fool did nothing, just sat on the stove and caught flies.
One day the old woman cooked some argent dumplings and said to the fool:
- Come on, take these dumplings to the brothers; let them eat.
She poured a full pot and gave it to him; he wandered towards his brothers. The day was sunny; As soon as Ivanushka left the outskirts, he saw his shadow on the side and thought:
“What kind of person is this? He’s walking next to me, not a step behind me: right, he wanted some dumplings?” And he began to throw dumplings at his shadow, and so he threw away every single one; looks, and the shadow keeps walking from the side.
- What an insatiable womb! - said the fool with a heart and threw a pot at her - the shards scattered in different directions.
So he comes empty-handed to his brothers; they ask him:
- You fool, why?
- I brought you lunch.
-Where is lunch? Come on lively.
- Look, brothers, an unknown person got attached to me on the way and ate everything!
- What kind of person is this?
- Here he is! And now it’s standing nearby!
The brothers scold him, beat him, beat him; They beat off and forced the sheep to graze, and they themselves went to the village to dine.
The fool began to herd; sees that the sheep have scattered across the field, let's catch them and tear out their eyes. He caught everyone, gouged out everyone’s eyes, gathered the herd into one heap and the little one sits there as if he had done the job. The brothers had lunch and returned to the field.
- What have you done, fool? Why is the flock blind?
- Why do they have eyes? When you left, brothers, the sheep scattered apart, and I came up with an idea: I started catching them, collecting them in a pile, tearing out their eyes - I was so tired!
- Wait, you’re not so smart yet! - the brothers say and let’s treat him with their fists; The fool got a lot of nuts!
Not much time had passed, the old people sent Ivan the Fool to the city to buy household chores for the holiday. Ivanushka bought everything: he bought a table, spoons, cups, and salt; a whole cartload of all sorts of things. He’s going home, and the horse is such an unlucky little horse: he’s lucky or unlucky!
“Well,” Ivanushka thinks to himself, “the horse has four legs and the table also has four, so the table will run away on its own.”
He took the table and put it on the road. He drives and drives, whether close or far, and the crows hover over him and keep cawing.
“You know, the sisters are hungry to eat, that they shouted so much!” thought the fool. He placed the dishes with food on the ground and began to regale:
- Little sisters! Eat for your health.
And he keeps moving forward and forward.
Ivanushka is driving through a forest; All the stumps along the road are burnt.
“Eh,” he thinks, the guys are without hats; they’ll be cold, dear ones!
He took pots and pots and put them on them. So Ivanushka reached the river, let’s water the horse, but she still doesn’t drink.
“You know, he doesn’t want it without salt!” - and well, salt the water. I poured out a bag full of salt, but the horse still didn’t drink.
- Why don’t you drink, wolf meat? Did I pour out a bag of salt for nothing?
He grabbed her with a log, right in the head - and killed her on the spot. Ivanushka had only one purse of spoons left, and he carried that too. As he goes, the spoons go back and clang: clang, clang, clang! And he thinks that the spoons say: “Ivanushka is a fool!” - he threw them and, well, trampled them and said:
- Here's Ivanushka the fool! Here's Ivanushka the Fool! They even decided to tease you, you bastards! He returned home and said to his brothers:
- I've redeemed everything, brothers!
- Thank you, fool, but where are your purchases?
“And the table is running away, yes, you know, it’s lagging behind, they’re eating from the sisters’ dishes, he put pots and pots on the heads of the children in the forest, he salted the horse’s swill with salt; and the spoons are teasing - so I left them on the road.
- Go, fool, quickly! Collect everything you scattered along the road!
Ivanushka went into the forest, took the pots from the charred stumps, knocked out the bottoms and put a dozen different pots on the batog: both large and small. Brings it home. His brothers beat him off; We went to the city ourselves to do some shopping, and left the fool to run the house. A fool listens, but the beer in the tub just ferments and ferments.
- Beer, don't wander! Don't tease the fool! - says Ivanushka.
No, beer doesn't listen; He took it and let everything out of the tub, sat down in the trough, drove around the hut and sang songs.
The brothers arrived, became very angry, took Ivanushka, sewed him up in a sack and dragged him to the river. They put the sack on the shore, and they themselves went to inspect the ice hole.
At that time, some gentleman was riding past in a troika of brown ones; Ivanushka and well shout:
“They put me in the voivodeship to judge and dress, but I don’t know how to judge or dress!”
“Wait, fool,” said the master, “I know how to judge and judge; get out of the bag!
Ivanushka got out of the sack, sewed the master there, and he got into his cart and drove out of sight. The brothers came, lowered the sack under the ice and listened; and in the water it just gurgles.
- You know, the burka catches! - the brothers said and wandered home.
Out of nowhere, Ivanushka rides towards them in a troika, rides and boasts:
- That's a hundred horses I caught! And Sivko was still there - so nice!
The brothers became jealous; say to a fool:
- Now sew us up and quickly lower us into the hole! Sivko will not leave us...
Ivanushka the Fool lowered them into the ice hole and drove them home to finish their beer and commemorate their brothers.
Ivanushka had a well, in the well there was a dace fish, and my fairy tale was over.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru