il was a cunning guy. One day his father called him over and said:
“Come on, son, let’s load the donkey with bags of grain and you’ll go to the mill.” Just look - there are a great many mills in those places. You will choose where it is cheaper, it will be more profitable. But remember firmly, don’t go to the miller Kyosa: he will certainly deceive you - he will take the grain, but will not give you the flour.
“Well, I’ll remember,” the son answered.
The father loaded the donkey with bags, and the guy immediately rode off. But the journey was not long. He arrived at the mills. There were many of them - lined up one after another, as if for show, in one row. Well, in order not to fall into the clutches of the deceiver Kyose, the guy began to look around - where to go.
And Kyose had the habit of hanging around at the gates of his mill, waiting for guests. He looks to see if any of the owners are coming with grain, and invites them to come over.
Well, that means Kyose was standing at the gate. He saw that the guy with the grain had arrived.
Kyose dashed into his mill and immediately jumped out through the back door and went in to his neighbor; he quietly slipped through the back door to him, immediately went out into the street through the front door and began calling the boy to him. But he recognized him, did not go to him and knocked on the neighboring mill. I thought, right, that this was not the mill of the evil Kyose, since he was standing at the other door.
The miller's guy started calling, but no one came. He took the bags off the donkey himself. And as soon as he poured the grain, Kyose comes out and says:
- Oh! Welcome!
Well, what can you do - even though he was deceived, but there was nowhere to go - he covered up the grain! Like it or not, I had to leave it!
But the guy remembered his father’s words; he knew what kind of bird the insidious Kyose was. He began to think about how to do it so that Kyose could not deceive him and steal the flour.
Kyose began to grind grain. And the guy tells him:
“My father told me to see to it that you grind our grain thoroughly, and then bake a big meal for us.” Moreover, he would give me his beloved daughter as my wife.
- Well then! - Kyose answered him. - You sit here, wait until the grain is crushed, then I will bake it for you and serve it to you!
He poured water into the cauldron and put the cauldron on the fire. The water boiled, and by that time the grain had been ground. Kyose the deceiver took the flour and poured it into the cauldron, as if for dough. But instead of dough, it turned out to be liquid porridge - the cauldron was filled with water to the brim, and a little flour was poured in. Such dough was only suitable for pancakes, but not for bread...
- What to do? - asked Kyose the deceiver. - We don’t have enough flour!
- Don't know. My father told me that you should bake it for us, and give us the flour separately!
“But I spent all the flour,” Kyose answered him. - You see: all the flour is in the cauldron! Where can I get more?
Here they quarreled.
“Okay,” Kyose said. - Let's do it differently. Let's chat with you about who will lie to whom. If you deceive me, I will give you both retribution and torment. If not, you will return home empty-handed.
The guy thought and agreed. And Kyose began to weave tales for him: he was older, which means he started first.
- Do you see that ditch? There was a miracle here in the old days. We planted cucumbers here. They grew and grew and grew so big - it was simply amazing. One cucumber accidentally fell across the ditch and remained in place of the bridge. Not only people could pass through it, but also camels.
- That's right, that's right! — the guy laughed cheerfully. - Certainly! I know! I remember! My father told me that there was also this: once camels with luggage walked along this cucumber bridge, carrying royal jewelry. And the cucumber bridge swayed and shook - the camels fell into the ditch and drowned. And my father sat in the cucumber, slept there. He woke up from this noise and looked out of the cucumber. Then he slowly collected all the royal treasures and became a rich man. And I’ll tell you something else! We had beehives, about three hundred of them. And every morning my father counted the bees. One morning he was counting and counting - one bee was missing! Where did she go? Father back and forth - well, as if there were no bees. What to do? My father saddled the rooster and went around the world to look for the mischievous bee. I traveled all over the world and reached the very edge. There are no bees and no bees! And when he began to approach Baghdad, he saw: a bee had been harnessed to a plow, and she, together with an ox, was plowing someone’s field. My father, of course, quickly unharnessed the bee and drove it in front of him. He brought her and let her into the hive. Then he unsaddled the rooster, and lo and behold, the poor guy had a wound on his back. What to do? I decided to cure the rooster. How? I tried one potion, then another - the rooster kept getting sick! And finally, someone gave him good advice: crack the nut, chew the kernel, and apply it to the wound. My father did just that, and sprinkled more earth on top and tied it off. The next morning he comes to the chicken coop, unties the rag, and sees - a miracle! The nut has already sprouted and the leaves have blossomed. The nut grew as tall as an oak tree, and an unprecedented harvest was harvested from it. The jackdaws made nests in the branches and hatched the jackdaws. And the tomboyish children saw the jackdaws - and let’s throw stones and clods of earth at them, they wanted to get nuts and get the jackdaws. So much rubbish had accumulated up there that soon there was no longer a tree there, but a large plot of land, and my father decided that he could sow a lot of seeds there, at least ten, and, in addition, there would still be a grove left. My father plowed that land with nine plows and sowed grain there. But he left the grove untouched; bears, foxes and wolves settled in it. Now the time has come, my father invited the reapers, boys and girls from three surrounding villages. Just as they began to work, a fox peeked out of the forest. Then the boys and girls rushed to catch the fox; they didn’t catch her, but someone threw a sickle at her. The handle of the sickle stuck right into the fox’s side. From the pain, the unfortunate woman began to rush here and there - and so she squeezed the entire field. And when she finished reaping, she rushed towards the forest. Then a sickle jumped out of Lisitsyn’s side, and a note fell to the ground nearby. The reapers picked it up, but they don’t know how to read it. They took it to the judge and asked to read it...
- What about the judge? - interrupted the deceiver Kyose.
- The judge told them - it’s written here: there’s no need for Kyosa to be cunning in vain, let him immediately give back the flour, and the repayment, and his daughter in addition.
That’s how the deceiver Kyose admitted that he was defeated and gave the boy the flour, the redemption, and his daughter in addition. And the guy put the bags on the donkey, took the bride by the hand - and went home!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru