Whether it happened or not, there lived in the water city nine lazy people and one agile one.
Nine lazy people had houses right next to the market, and the Agile lived on the very outskirts of the city.
Both the Idlers and the Agile made carts. They were lazy and lazy, and in a whole day they could hardly make just one cart. And Agile made nine carts during the day.
The people at the market scolded the carts made by lazy people, and praised the carts of the Agile.
The nine lazy people began to think about how to improve their affairs. They thought day and night, and then one of them exclaimed:
- Found it!
Four loafers who were hammering one nail, three who were lifting an ax, and one with a plane in his hand - they froze in place.
And the first quitter continued
“Now I’ll go to Provorny, praise our work, say that we make eighty-one carts every day, and we have so much money that we don’t know what to do with it.” And so they decided to take him into the campaign. The agile one will work for us for several days. During this time we will sell our carts.
- You're right! - the loafers shouted and sent the first loafer to the Agile.
- Brother Agile! We feel very sorry for you. Think for yourself, you work from morning to night, you shed sweat - why do you need to torture yourself like that? Drop everything, come to us.
“Well, okay,” said Agile, “let’s go like this!”
We all started working together. The loafers hid from the heat in the shade. Only the agile one, with a scarf tied around his forehead, continued to saw, plan, and hammer in nails.
In the evening, Agile counted the carts. He himself made nine carts, and the lazy people made one - ten in total. Agile was surprised, but remained silent. At the market, no one bought a cart made by lazy people. And the carts that Agile made were sold out like hot cakes.
Agile began to teach lazy people. None of this worked out.
The Agile abandoned the loafers and went home.
The slackers thought and thought about what to do next, but couldn’t come up with anything.
- Found it! - the first quitter finally shouted.
One slacker was hammering a nail, six were putting a wheel on an axle, one was holding an ax - everyone froze in place.
The first quitter continued:
“Tonight we will burn all the carts of the Agile.” And tomorrow there will be no carts at the market except ours, and their prices will rise - we will sell our goods for good money. What do you say?
- Good idea! - said the rest of the quitters.
As soon as Agile left the city for a while, the loafers set fire to all his ready-made carts.
Agile returned home and saw that his carts had burned down. I immediately realized who did it.
- Eh, what happened is gone! – he said and, as if nothing had happened, got to work.
They took the loafers to sell their carts at the market and stopped at Provorny’s to enjoy his misfortune. They see him working as if nothing had happened. And he still sings.
- Salom, Agile! How are you doing? Is everything okay?
“Yes, everything is fine,” answered Agile.
“We heard that your carts burned down.” Is this true?
“True,” answered Agile. “All the carts should have been burned a long time ago; I just couldn’t get it together.” Luckily for me, good people were found and burned them. I was very happy.
- Why ? - the quitters were surprised
- Very simple. I needed a lot of ash.
- For what!? – the quitters were surprised.
“Yes,” said Prvorny, “at the market the ash from the carts is exchanged for gold.” Weight for weight. He himself just brought gold, which he received in exchange for ash.
The loafers quickly returned home, burned their carts, and poured the ashes into saddlebags and took them to the market.
– Who needs ashes from the cart? - the idlers at the market began to shout in every possible way.
– Good ash from a good cart is for sale!
– For one hour of fine ash there is only one hour of gold!
- Ho-ho-ho! Come on, hurry up!
People laughed until they cried, and then they grabbed sticks and drove the loafers out of the market.
The loafers got very angry and decided to take revenge on the Agile.
They climbed into Provorny’s yard at midnight and wanted to beat him up. In the dark we came across a donkey, otherwise we’d start kicking. The loafers got completely angry and started beating the donkey. They beat him so hard that he died.
The next morning, Agile sees his donkey lying dead. Agile was upset, then he put the donkey on the cart and took it to the field.
He drove up to a large current, took off the donkey and placed it near a stack of unthreshed wheat.
The owner of the current, the moneylender Salimbai, was sitting nearby and having breakfast.
He saw a donkey near the wheat and let’s shout:
- Post! Post! Let's go! Let's go!
But the donkey stands there and doesn’t move.
Salimbai ran up and hit the donkey on the back with a stick. The dead donkey, of course, fell to the ground.
“Wai!” shouted Agile. - You, bai, killed my donkey!
Salimbai was scared.
“My soul, Agile,” he began to ask, “Don’t shout so loudly.” Let no one know about this!
But Agile continued to shout:
- No, you will compensate me for the losses - such a good and hard-working donkey was!
And he rushed with a stick at Salimbai.
- Stop, I’ll pay as much as you want!
And he counted out ten gold pieces to the Agile.
The agile one went home. On the way he met lazy people.
- Salom, my darling Agile! - he said
- Salom! - Agile answered.
- How are you doing ? What's new?
“There’s a lot of news,” answered Agile. “Tonight my donkey died, I took it to the market and sold it. Look how much I got for dead meat.
The agile one untied his wallet and showed ten gold pieces.
At the sight of gold, the loafers' eyes widened.
They ran home, killed their donkeys and dragged their corpses to the market to sell.
They dragged me to the market and let's shout:
- Who needs dead donkeys? Exchange for gold!
The people at the market were angry:
- What kind of disgrace is this? Who sells dead donkeys?
He beat up a bunch of lazy people and drove them out of the market.
The agile one did not have time to get home, he saw: all nine loafers were running.
Agile thought: “There are nine of them, and I can’t handle it alone!”
And he ran into the steppe. Loafers follow him.
But it was not for nothing that the Agile was nicknamed the Agile; he ran quickly and was far ahead of the slackers.
Agile runs across the steppe, and Salimbai drives sheep to meet him
“Hey,” the bai shouts, “where are you running?”
– Don’t you know: I was appointed Shah!
The bai became worried:
- They want to appoint you as a shah, poor man? Why on earth is this? Oh, you empty pumpkin! I - bai, let me be appointed Shah! - he cried.
“If so, run straight to that hillock,” answered Agile. – That’s where you’ll be appointed!
Salimbay really wanted to become the Shah and ran towards the hill at full speed.
And Agile put on his robe inside out, tied a scarf around his face and sat down in a ditch.
Then the loafers ran up and, out of breath, called out to Agile.
- Wasn’t there one person running through here? - they asked.
“I ran, I ran,” answered Agile
- How long has it been since he ran?
- No, just now. There he is running! - said Agile and pointed to the bay running in the distance.
The loafers looked, saw the bai and set off to catch up with him.
The agile one turned his robe over again, took the scarf off his head and went home.
And lazy people, they say, still run around the steppe - chasing the bay.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru