A small gypsy camp stopped by the river. The gypsies unharnessed their horses, set up tents, lit fires, and the women went to the river to wash their clothes. The leader of this camp was an old man named Korcha. He wore a gray beard down to his waist, his eyebrows were shaggy, his hair was disheveled, well, a sorcerer is a sorcerer. And the look is somehow sharp, piercing. He walked around in a silk shirt, belted with a red embroidered sash.
And so Korcha’s wife went to wash his clothes. I washed it and hung it on a bush to dry. And then the gypsies went to the village, and the men began to go about their business, everything as usual. In the evening everyone gathered together. The women began to take off their clothes from the bushes. Korcha’s wife went to get clothes, took off everything, washed it, and lo and behold, there was no sash. They rushed to look for the sash, and there was a noise. It was as if no one had seen the men near the camp. Usually the children from the village come running to the gypsies to see if they could accidentally pull off the sash, but they were not there either, no one saw the village children.
Korcha began to ask his people:
-Where did the sash go? Come on guys, give it back kindly.
“We didn’t take it, by God, we didn’t take it,” the gypsies shouted.
And the gypsies began to swear and swear that they had not taken the sash.
And the men swear that they didn’t take it:
– Te hav me dadeskiro mas!
“Look, guys,” Korcha said again and looked the gypsies in the eyes, “then you may regret that you didn’t confess right away.” Only in vain does the one who stole think that he will be able to hide from me. I'll find my sash anyway. And the thief will not be alive.
- How are you going to find him?
- I have a magic gun. It won't hurt anyone, but it will kill the thief. So it’s better to hand over the sash as quickly as possible.
The gypsies shrugged their shoulders, saying, do Korcha, whatever you know, we have nothing to do with it.
Korcha went into the tent and pulled out an old flintlock gun: huge, heavy, with a long barrel, like a cannon. He built small trestles for the gun from two tied stakes, attached the gun to them, loaded it, poured gunpowder on the shelf and cocked the hammer.
“Go,” he says, “everyone past this gun.” Anyone who did not take the sash can be calm, the gun will be silent, and if a thief passes, he will shoot on the spot. Don't look at me, I won't go anywhere near that gun.
The gypsies laughed, how can a gun fire without a person? And at the same time, they are afraid: who knows, what if the gun accidentally fires, you can expect anything from this sorcerer Korcha. And Korcha warns everything:
- If you didn’t take the sash, go boldly, don’t be afraid of anything.
It’s a well-known fact that gypsies are not afraid of God or the devil. “Oh, let them kill me,” everyone thought, “but I’ll still walk in front of the gun, I really want to see how the gun will fire itself.” Interesting!
And the whole camp passed in front of the gun. However, it did not fire, as Korcha promised, it did not shoot anyone.
Here the gypsies became completely bolder. If earlier they had any doubts, like, who knows, he will shoot or not, now they decided that all this was empty chatter, that their leader was simply checking: what if the thief was afraid to walk in front of the gun. The gypsies laughed:
- Well, Korcha, apparently your sash flew away. We all passed in front of the gun; there was no one else to go. Maybe the gun rusted in the nomad camp? Or maybe the gunpowder is raw?
From that day on, the only talk in the camp was about Korcha’s missing sash and the magic gun. But Korcha doesn’t pay attention to these conversations, just walks around and smokes his pipe. However, the gypsies warned:
– Don’t touch the gun anyway. And the one who took the sash will definitely kill him.
That was some fun for the gypsy children. If the first time they felt overwhelmed in front of the gun, now it’s as if a new game has appeared for them: they will run past the gun and shout and burst into tears:
- But it doesn’t shoot, Korcha, the gun is yours! And they gasped at your sash...
One way or another, one day the gypsies went to bed, sang and danced around the fire until three o’clock in the morning, and then calmed down and went to their tents. And just as sleep began to close the gypsies’ eyes, they suddenly heard: a shot rang out. Here everything is out of the tents at once.
- Who was killed?! - the gypsies shout to each other. -Are you alive?
- Alive! - answers. - And you?
- And I’m alive! And who was killed?
The gypsies counted and saw that everyone seemed to be alive.
- So who did the gun hit?
They started looking. They searched and searched, and before dawn they found a dead cow in the bushes. Here the gypsies almost died laughing:
- Ha-ha-ha! The cow stole the sash.
- The cow has a sash around her neck.
- Look, look, the sash is tied to the tail.
- Look, guys, the cow’s legs are tangled with a sash. In short, everyone tried their best, only Korcha, as soon as he saw the killed cow, frowned, crossed his eyes and ordered:
- So that no one comes near the cow, so that no one touches it.
Korcha saddled his gray horse and rode to the field where the shepherd was grazing cows. He brought the shepherd to the dead cow:
- Do you know whose beast it is?
“I’ll find out, but I won’t find out,” answered the shepherd. - After all, this is Ivan’s cow. He is the poorest man in our village - a scumbag. There were a lot of kids at home, there was only one joy - a cow! At least somehow it helped to last forever. Now they will have no life at all. The children will die of hunger.
The shepherd ran to the village and announced to the peasants that he had killed a gypsy cow with a gun. The men were alarmed. Ivan’s wife burst into tears, and Ivan grabbed the ax. The men came running to the camp. Korcha comes out and says:
- Why, guys, are you making false accusations against me? I didn't kill Ivan's cow. The gun fired itself.
“What are you talking about, old man, how can a gun fire itself?”
Korcha explained how it was, they say, so and so, his sash was missing, they say, then he pulled out his magic gun and at first forced all the gypsies to pass in front of the gun, but the gun did not fire, and the gypsies knew that if one of them stole the sash, death awaited him. And this morning a shot rang out, everyone came running and looked - the cow had been killed.
- Why are you talking nonsense? Why are you avoiding the answer?
“And you’re saying this in vain; I’m not afraid of the answer.” And I will pay you, Ivan, for the cow, I will pay you so much that you will remember me forever and remember me with a kind word.
“Now we’ll see what kind of cow this is,” said Korcha, took out a gypsy knife from his boot and ripped open the cow’s belly. When the stomach was cut open, they looked: and there Korcha’s sash, embroidered with gold, lay intact.
Korcha generously paid Ivan for the killed cow, and ordered him to bury the cattle and not touch its meat, saying it was an unclean animal.
From then on, the gypsies believed in the power of the magic gun.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru