Once upon a time there lived two brothers, the elder and the younger. The eldest was stingy and greedy, he was impatient to take possession of his father’s entire inheritance. And when his father died, he decided to use a trick. One evening he said to his brother: “Younger brother, it’s time for us to share our father’s inheritance.” Let's get up early tomorrow and go plow. Whoever plows the most will get everything. Just an agreement: don’t eat anything in the morning.
The younger brother always obeyed the older one. He agreed now.
In the morning, the elder brother woke up early. His wife prepared him breakfast, he ate his fill, and then woke up the younger one: “Well, I got up.” Let's go plow.
They went out into the field and began to plow.
The elder worked quickly. The hungry younger one found it difficult to keep up with him.
And so it turned out that all the property went to the eldest, and the youngest was left with nothing.
The youngest had to go to the mountains. He settled in a cave. He chopped wood, sold it and somehow earned his living.
One day he went into the forest for firewood. Suddenly he sees a large magpie’s nest on a tree. He took a stick and began to knock him down. Then a magpie flew out of its nest and begged: “Don’t break my nest!” As a reward, I will take you to the Mountain of the Sun for treasures. - For what treasures? “The younger brother didn’t believe her. “You come here early, before sunrise, and take a small bag with you.” Then I will show you what treasures there are.
The next day, at dawn, the younger brother took a small bag with him and followed the magpie to the Mountain of the Sun.
When they climbed to the very top of the mountain, the younger brother could not believe his eyes: in front of him lay piles of gold, pearls and various precious stones. He filled his bag with treasures, thanked the magpie and returned home.
Soon he left his cave, built a good house and lived happily ever after.
The older brother found out how rich the younger brother became, and he became envious. He took a stick, ran into the forest and began to knock down a magpie's nest. She flew out of the magpie's nest again and promised her older brother to take him to the Mountain of the Sun.
“Just make sure you take a small bag with you, no more than one measure of rice,” she taught him.
The older brother thought to himself that such a bag would be too small for him. He returned home and told his wife to sew a bag from the largest sheet.
The next day, at dawn, the elder brother went after the magpie to the Mountain of the Sun. When he saw the piles of gold, pearls and precious stones, he forgot about everything and began to quickly fill his bag. But the bag was too big, and the elder brother took so long to fill it that the first rays of the sun already appeared in the sky. “Let’s run quickly,” the magpie shouted, “or the sun will rise and burn you!”
But the elder brother did not listen - he wanted to take with him as many treasures as possible. No matter how much the magpie hurried him, he collected more and more jewelry into his bag. And when the sun rose, it saw that a greedy man was in charge of the mountain, and burned him.
Old people say that this always happens: the sun will never offend a poor man, he will warm him and give him a piece of his gold. But if a greedy rich man wants to grab everything for himself, the angry sun will burn him with its rays.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru