A long time ago, in a small village there lived a poor old man named Tsoi. One day Tsoi chopped firewood in the forest, put it in the chige and went home. He walked and walked and reached a mountain, which in the village was nicknamed the Mountain of Three Years. For a long time, there has been a rumor among the people: if you fall on the Mountain of Three Years, you will live only three years. So people tried not to walk up that mountain, and if they did, they stepped carefully: they were afraid of falling.
The grandfather reached the mountain and thought: what should he do? It’s scary to cross the mountain, and it’s too late to go around: the sun has already completely set.
He thought and thought, then waved his hand and began to climb the mountain. “Maybe I won’t fall,” he thinks.
The old man climbed the mountain, rested a little and went down. Suddenly his leg twisted, he tripped and fell.
An old man is lying there, crying. “My death is apparently close,” he thinks. He lay there, cried, then got up and trudged home. Tsoi came home and said to the old woman:
- Well, old woman, I will soon die: I fell today on the Mountain of Three Years. Sorry if I offended you in any way.
The old woman got excited:
- How can I live without you?
The old man did not answer, went into the far room, lay down in a corner and prepared for death. The old woman gives him porridge, but he doesn’t eat, she brought water, but he didn’t touch it.
“It doesn’t matter,” he says, “I’ll die soon.”
The old woman ran to the neighbors and told them what trouble had happened to the old man.
The neighbors shake their heads, they feel sorry for old man Tsoi, but they don’t know how to help his grief.
Suddenly a boy, nicknamed Tol To Ri, which means “Smart,” approached the old woman and asked:
- Grandma, grandma, can I come to you? I need to talk to Grandpa Tso.
“Well,” the old woman answers, “let’s go if we need to.”
Tol To Ri came to his grandfather, and his grandfather lay groaning. Tol To Ri sat down next to him and said:
- Grandfather, and grandfather, they say you fell on the Mountain of Three Years?
“Fell, darling, fell,” Tsoi answers, and he himself groans even louder. Tol To Ri smiled:
- Do you want me to teach you how to save yourself from death? Grandfather jumped up.
- How? - asks.
“It’s very simple,” Tol To Ri answers, “go to the mountain again.”
Tsoi got angry:
- Are you planning to play jokes on the old man? And aren’t you ashamed, Tol To Ri?
And Tol To Ri answers:
- Don’t scold me, grandfather, better listen to what I tell you. People say: if you fall on a mountain, you will live for three years. If you go up a mountain and fall twice, you will live for six years. If you want, fall ten times and you’ll live thirty years.
Tol To Ri said this and left the house.
The old man thought: maybe the boy told the truth? He got out of bed and ran up the mountain - where did the agility come from? He ran up the mountain, tripped and fell, and at the same moment someone’s voice rang out:
- That's right, old man, you're doing it. If you fall once, you will live three years; if you fall ten times, you will live thirty years; if you fall a hundred times, you will walk the earth for three hundred years.
The old man was delighted: the very spirit of the mountains spoke to him! He began to stumble and fall. I fell and fell, I was even tired. He fell a hundred times and went home happy.
He goes and rejoices. “Now I’ll live for three hundred years,” he thinks.
And Tol To Ri came out from behind a large pine tree that stood at the top, and let’s laugh.
From that time on, the old man forgot about death and lived for a long, long time.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru