Once upon a time, a long time ago, an Irish villager walked across the yard to the stable to give his horse food; comes up and hears that someone in the stable is singing a song, and tapping as if with a hammer: knock, knock, knock, knock - well, just like shoemakers when they grind their shoes.
He listened - the singing and tapping did not stop.
“Eh,” he thought, “this is probably a leprechaun - who else would it be? I’ll sneak up on him slowly, grab him and take away the bag that he wears on his belt, and then we’ll live!”
No sooner said than done: the villager quietly entered the stable, crept up to the stall from which the leprechaun’s song was heard, looked into it and saw that at the very feet of his horse was sitting a tiny man in a red cap, with a hammer in one hand, with a small shoe in the other, and was calmly humming a song to himself. The villager carefully bent down and grabbed the leprechaun with both hands.
- Well, now you won’t leave! - he shouted. - Don’t be stingy, give me your wallet! Well!
“Wait, I’ll give it to you,” the leprechaun answered very calmly, “just let me untie it from my belt!”
The villager believed him, spread his arms, and he laughed and disappeared... Only he left behind a shoe, which the villager put in his pocket out of grief and later sold for a mere trifle.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru