In Yunnan Province, where the Yi people have long lived, there is a large mountain called Guanyingpan. A fast stream with cool water flows under the mountain. Every day, village shepherds bring cows here and sit on the shore while the cows nibble grass and drink clear spring water.
And then the shepherds noticed: exactly at noon, a beautiful girl appears from nowhere, and instead of ninety-nine cows in the herd, there become one hundred. By evening, when it’s time to drive the cows to the village, there are again ninety-nine of them. And the girl disappears somewhere.
The shepherds soon became friends with the beauty and fell in love with her very much. She knew many interesting stories and was very good at telling them.
“Among these cows,” the girl once said, “there is one that is not simple, but magical: she walks on water as if on earth—the waves part before her.” You can drive it across the sea. That's what she is! And every hair on her back is magical: it can withstand a thousand jin (Jin is a measure of weight equal to approximately 500 grams). With such a hair's breadth, it is easy for a person to bear any burden without getting tired.
The shepherds heard this, and they wanted to know which of the cows was magical. But the girl just smiled and said:
“You can earn a wonderful thing only through honest work.”
She said so and disappeared: the sun was already setting behind the mountain.
The shepherds marveled and decided that a heavenly fairy was coming to them. They counted the cows - ninety-nine. The fairy probably took the magic cow with her to heaven!
The next day, the shepherds wanted to eat wild apples. They climbed a tree, began to pick fruits and did not notice how the cows climbed into the corn field. So they would have trampled all the crops if the old watchman had not noticed them. He ran onto the field, started shouting, waving his arms, but how could he handle such a herd alone? The old man grabbed his old yoke, on which he carried brushwood, and began to beat the cows. And this rocker had served the old man for many years; from the sun and rain it had cracked and became chipped.
The old man dispersed the cows and, tired, sat down to rest. He didn't even notice that there were pieces of cow hair stuck in the cracks of his old rocker.
The sun was setting to the west, it was time to go home. The old man picked up two bundles of brushwood, hung them on the yoke and was surprised: “What is this? Why is it so easy to carry?”
He added another bundle - and didn’t even feel its weight! I added one more, but the rocker still didn’t get any heavier. What kind of miracles? The old man hung the entire beam with brushwood, leaving only a narrow gap for the shoulder between the fagots. I carried it and didn’t feel the weight! And he walked along the road unusually quickly, as if someone was urging him on. Satisfied, the old man returned home: he brought a lot of brushwood, and was not tired at all!
From that day on, he began to carry huge bundles of brushwood to the market in the city. He now had enough money for food and drink, and there was still some left over. And he healed much better than before.
Once an old man was walking into the city with brushwood and met a rich man on the road. He saw that the old man was carrying a huge load and was surprised: could an old man really be able to carry so much? The rich man stopped the old man and began to question him.
“I have a wonderful rocker,” he answered, “no matter how much you load it, you don’t feel the weight!”
The rich man didn’t believe it, so he tried it himself. Yes, the old man said the truth: the yoke with brushwood was as if without a load! The rich man’s eyes lit up, and he began to ask the old man:
- Sell me your rocker! I will give you five hundred lans of silver for it.
The old man disagreed for a long time: he was sorry to part with such a rocker. But the rich man stuck like a mosquito - sell and sell!
“Well, okay,” thought the old man, “I’ll be fed with these five hundred lans of silver for the rest of my life, but you work hard and collect brushwood!”
The old man received silver, and the rich man received a magic rocker, and they each went their separate ways. The rich man returned home, looked at his yoke - he couldn’t be happier: now he will pay off all the farm laborers and will carry the brushwood himself.
He began to stroke the rocker and noticed cracks on it.
Then the rich man went to the village carpenter and told him to plan and polish the rocker better so that it would shine.
The carpenter took a plane, walked it once or twice and removed all the hairs of the magic cow. The rocker became smooth and shiny, but... its magical power was gone!
The rich man returned home and began to brag to his wife about his purchase. She thought: “Last year, when the rich harvest was harvested, even he was not so happy! Apparently, he really bought a valuable thing.”
She wanted to experience the wonderful properties of the rocker herself; She first hung a small bundle of brushwood on him - she wouldn’t break his back.
“Don’t be afraid,” her husband shouted to her, “the rocker is magical, you can hang a whole house and you won’t even feel it!”
He brought two huge bundles of brushwood and hung them on the yoke.
- Well, now get up!
The wife strained, gasped and fell to the ground.
- Ugh! How magical is it?! Did you dream about this in a dream, or what?
“Can a woman understand true magic?” - thought the rich man. He added two more bundles of brushwood, pulled the yoke as hard as he could, and... it broke!
This is how it should have happened: after all, a magical thing can only be earned by honest work!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru