Once upon a time there lived in a certain village a lazy man named Ba-du. He was distinguished by this vice from early childhood. However, Badu was not an ordinary lazy person, but a special one, he never refused to do what he was entrusted with, but, having gone to where work was waiting for him, he did nothing - he simply played the fool.
Badu was his parents' only son, and they spoiled him very much. They, of course, regretted that their son was lazy, but nevertheless they indulged his wishes. - niyam. Meanwhile, Badu reached adulthood, and his parents, fearing that things would be difficult for him after their death, married him to a kind and hardworking girl.
When Badu's parents passed away, he inherited all their wealth, but did not care about increasing it. On the contrary, he thought only about his own pleasures and soon squandered his entire inheritance.
His wife constantly tried to persuade him to do something, but her admonitions did not move Badu. Then Sna cleared a small plot of land from the forest and began to grow vegetables on it. However, she was unable to feed the sloth Badu and three children alone. For a long time she thought and wondered what to do, and finally turned to Bud with these words:
- How long can you vegetate and suffer? Since you don’t want to do farming, maybe you’ll like trading?
Having nowhere to go, he agreed to start trading.
Badu took a basket of food on his back, grabbed some money and left the house. He went out into the street, stood and thought: where should he go? And he has no goods to sell, and he is not accustomed to trading. “Let me go wherever I look. I’m tired of my wife’s whining - maybe I’ll rest a little.” He walked and walked and reached the forest, Badu began to make his way through the dense thickets and came out onto a well-worn path. In the evening, the path led him to the bank of a small river, and there he saw a woman collecting water.
- How similar she is to my wife! – Badu was surprised.
Badu thought that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to ask the woman about these places and spend the night in the village. And he followed her. And when he entered the house, his own children rushed towards him.
The wife was surprised:
- Is that you? Why did you come back so quickly?
Badu said that he got lost in the forest and the path led him back to his native village. Three days later, his wife began to pester him again with reproaches and persuasion. Badu could not stand it and left home.
He walked for a long time, for a short time, and finally came to a mountain, at the foot of which a stream flowed. And in that mountain there was a cave. Badu put his simple luggage on the floor of the cave, washed, ate and went to bed.
The next morning he remembered his wife and children, and he was drawn home. He returned home, but did not go into the room, but hid under the house and began to listen.
– Is our poor father walking somewhere? – the eldest son said plaintively. – I dug up a mole yesterday. I’ll probably fry it and leave half of it for my father.
- Okay, son, it's late. It's time to sleep! Badu sat and sat, but did not dare to knock on the door and again wandered into his cave.
Busy with sad thoughts, he stumbled and, looking at his feet, saw the horn of a buffalo. Badu raised his mouth and moved on. He came to the cave and, having had dinner, went to bed.
Badu woke up in the morning and thought: “How to pass the time?!” And then a horn caught his eye. “That’s great,” Badu rejoiced. “Let me decorate it.” And he began to carve intricate patterns on the horn. When dusk fell on the earth, Badu, unable to control himself, went home again. He hid, as before, under the house and heard.
- Mom, where did you hide the meat that we left for father? – asks Badu’s little daughter.
“In a bamboo basket,” the wife answered reluctantly.
-Have you prepared a squirrel for your father? – asked the youngest son.
“Father will return, then we’ll cook for him.” Now go to sleep, it's late.
The lights in the house went out, and Badu went into the cave again.
Days passed by, and Badu continued to while away his time in the cave, but he still couldn’t find anything to do. How will he return home? After all, all his quarrels with his wife will begin all over again. What could he come up with so that his wife wouldn’t scold him? He thought and thought and thought. “I’ll come home,” Badu decided, “and tell my wife and children what they talked about when I wasn’t home. After all, they don’t even know that I heard all their conversations! And if they ask how I know everything, I will refer to the buffalo horn, I will say that the buffalo horn endowed me with the spirit of a seer and now with its help I can guess the past and predict the future. They will be surprised."
So Badu came up with the idea of becoming a soothsayer, and for this purpose it is necessary to have a magic wand. Badu squeezed the horn and the horn became flat. Wrapping the horn stick in a rag, he put it in the shoulder basket and set off on the way back.
The sun was already setting when Badu appeared on the doorstep of the house. His wife and children were very happy with him, and after a delicious dinner prepared in honor of his return, his wife asked:
- Well, how are you doing? How much did you benefit from?
– The benefits I have gained are difficult to assess. I acquired a magic wand, which endowed me with the gift of a seer and soothsayer.
-What kind of stick is this? – the wife was surprised. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
- I'll show you this magic wand. Only, except me, no one should touch her. With these words, Badu took out a wand and, putting it to his ear, pretended to be listening to something attentively.
“Is it true that the other day my son caught a mole and asked me to fry half of it and leave it for his father?”
The household froze in surprise. Meanwhile, Badu continued:
“Did it happen that your mother caught a squirrel and you kept it until I returned?”
- Of course, of course! “Everything is exactly right,” the wife answered, “as if you heard it with your own ears!”
Lazy Badu smiled smugly and hid his magic wand.
Soon the whole village knew that Badu had a magic wand and with its help he could predict the future and recognize the past. This news reached the royal palace.
Just at this time, for an unknown reason, a strong fire broke out in the capital of the state. The flames spread from one house to another, and could not be extinguished.
Then the king sent messengers to the soothsayer Badu, so that He could establish the cause of the fire and advise how to deal with it.
“His Majesty the King,” the messengers announced when they came to Bad, “has ordered you to report to the palace immediately.” His Majesty the King wants to know why there was a fire in his kingdom and why it cannot be extinguished.
“Come what may,” decided the frightened Badu. “I’ll stay alive or lay down my head, but I don’t dare resist the royal will.” Let me take my magic wand, maybe it will come in handy.” “Happiness has arrived,” Badu’s wife thought in the meantime. “Now all our torment will come to an end!” Badu said goodbye to his loved ones and reluctantly followed the royal messengers.
By evening they reached a fork in the road and stopped for the night. Badu sat down under a low tree and began to think about his sad fate. Suddenly the branches of the tree rustled, and Badu saw a raven and a crow above his head.
“Kar-kar,” said the raven. - We need to hurry. The royal capital has been burning for quite some time. Perhaps now is the time to get some loot, otherwise it will burn to the ground, and we will never be able to profit.
- Why don’t they put out the fire? – the crow was surprised.
“They don’t have such strength,” answered the raven. – When the palace was being built, a frog was walled up under one of the columns. From then on, she cursed both the king and the kingdom and sent a fire to the capital. And in order for it to stop, you need to rescue the frog.
- Now I'm saved! – Badu was happy. – In life, miracles happen even more often than in fairy tales: you should never lose heart ahead of time!
The next day Badu appeared before the bright eyes of the king.
“The soothsayer Badu,” the king addressed him. “For many days in a row, a fire has been raging in our capital, and it cannot be extinguished. Help us get rid of this disaster, and I will give you half of my kingdom!
Badu silently bowed to the king, took out a horn stick and, putting it to his ear, feigned thoughtful attention.
- Our venerable ruler! - he turned to the king. – In the eastern part of the palace, under a column, a red frog is walled up. Once you release it, the fires will stop on their own.
People immediately raised the column, and as soon as the frog got out, the fire died down.
And the grateful king fulfilled his promise, and the sloth Badu became the owner of half the kingdom.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru