There lived a husband and wife. All they thought from morning to evening was how to get rich. My wife used to say:
- Let's start doing tailoring and sewing clothes!
“It’s not a matter of tailoring,” the husband replies. - Stick a needle and pull a thread every day. You will only get tired, but you will earn very little.
“Then let’s take up the dyeing craft,” the wife continues.
- Dyeing is even worse. Both themselves are covered in paint, and there are only paints around them. What a life! But again, there is no self-interest.
They argued and argued and finally decided to set up an inn. They arranged it, and things went well for them, but they still didn’t make any money.
Rich guests will bring goods and take them away with them. What will you take from the poor? He himself is poor and naked.
And then one day a venerable old man wandered into the inn - a white beard, a long staff, on the staff in red ink hieroglyphs written: “If I enter the gate, I will save everyone from worries.” The husband saw what was written on the staff and thought: “This is nothing other than an immortal fortune teller.”
He couldn’t bear it and asked:
- Master, master! Tell me, how do you relieve people of their worries?
“I have one potion,” the old man answers, “whoever drinks it will forget about all his troubles!” Sadness, melancholy and worries - as if they had never happened!
The husband and wife heard this and began to ask the elder to sell them a magic potion. The elder agreed and weighed half a liana.
The wife took the potion and said to her husband:
“Well, now we’ll certainly get rich, we’ll add this powder to our rich guests’ rice or tea, and they’ll forget their sacks and bales here.”
And it just had to happen that the very next day a rich merchant stopped by the inn. The caskets are filled with pearls, the bags with jasper, the boxes with corals and turquoise. And you can’t count the gold and silver jewelry! The greedy owners' eyes lit up. While the husband watched the merchant stack priceless treasures near the kana in his room, the wife in the kitchen poured every drop of powder into the guest’s tea and rice. The guest ate all the rice, emptied a whole pot of tea and went to bed. The greedy owners trembled with impatience all night and did not sleep a wink.
And early in the morning, as soon as the merchant left, they rushed to his room: they were prowling near the kana, searching on the kana, but they couldn’t find anything. They began to search in the corners, they tore up the floor, dismantled the can, all in vain: let alone jewelry, a stone - they didn’t even find it!
- The damned old man deceived us! - the wife screamed in rage, - this is not a magic potion, the merchant took everything with him, did not forget anything!
- Oh, turtle spawn! - the husband screamed even louder. - Forgot! I forgot to pay for the stay! The old man told us: “Whoever drinks the potion will forget about all his troubles!” And we forgot these words of his!
Greed, apparently, takes away your memory!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru