Once a monk wandered into a village. He was wearing a bright robe and hat, and in his hands was a stick. The monk walks from house to house, asking for alms. He walked around almost the entire village and suddenly saw that on the other bank there was a large house under a tiled roof. The monk went to that house, knocked on the gate, and asked for alms. An angry, despicable old man came out of the house, waved his hands at the monk and shouted:
- We have nothing, get out!
The monk politely says:
- Don't skimp, donate something. If there is nothing in such a rich house, then who will give me alms?
- That damned monk! How annoying! If I got rich, it was certainly not with your help! There’s no point in arguing here, get out!
Everyone in the village knew how greedy and evil the old man was, and they didn’t like him.
But even the miser was impressed by the wise words of the monk; he did not know what to do, and he knocked with all his might with his long pipe, shaking out the ashes from it. Then he snatched the bag from the monk, went to the barn, filled the bag with stale manure and brought it to the monk. He silently took the bag, bowed low and walked away. A monk is walking along the road, and suddenly he hears someone calling him. He turned around, and this woman was catching up with him.
- Our father has completely lost his mind in old age, he poured manure into your bag, don’t judge him harshly and accept this rice. “The woman said so and handed the monk a bag of rice. It was the daughter-in-law of a greedy old man.
“Thank you,” says the monk, “kindness is rewarded with good, and evil is rewarded with evil, remember this.”
The woman turned back, but the monk stopped her and said quietly:
- Tomorrow your house will be flooded. Don’t tell anyone about this, take the child, go up to the mountains, and there you will be saved. Just when you rise, don’t look back.
The monk said so and disappeared.
“This monk is not simple,” the woman thought, “Heaven sent him to punish cruel people.” And in fact, the next day, at exactly noon, a large hole appeared in the yard, water began to pour out of the hole, and just behold, everything would flood.
The woman put the child on the back, grabbed the most necessary things and ran out of the house. At that same moment, a hurricane came, rain poured down, thunder roared, so much so that the Earth and Heaven shook. Forgetting about the monk’s warning, the woman looked back and saw that in place of a huge, whale-like house under a tiled roof, powerful waves were rising and foaming.
- Ah! - All the woman had time to shout, and at that very moment she and her child turned into a stone rock.
That rock still stands. It really resembles a woman with a child on her back, which is why it got the name Mother Rock. And under the rock a huge lake overflowed, lotuses bloomed on it. They say that after it rains, as soon as it clears, you can see the pots and bowls of a greedy old man at the bottom.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru