Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman. The old man collected thorns in the field, sold them at the market and bought some flour. The old woman was cooking stew from flour. This is what they fed on.
Winter has come. One day the old people woke up and saw: everything around was covered with white snow. An old man went out into the field to collect thorns, but not a twig was visible—there was white snow everywhere. The old man returned home. The old woman tells him:
“We don’t have a single twig, nothing to light the fire with.”
They sit there hungry and don’t know what to do. The old woman called the old man to climb onto the roof and see if bushes were visible somewhere.
They got up, looked in all directions, and suddenly saw: a tall reed sticking out of the ground. They got off the roof and went to the reeds. The old man pulled the reed, and a door opened under it. They entered the door and saw the bai's yard, and in the yard there were six cauldrons, and in each one something tasty was being cooked: in one - shurpa, and in the other - pilaf, in the third - dumplings, in the fourth - milk porridge, in the fifth - jelly, and in the sixth - pies were being fried.
The old people were happy and began to eat. But then the old woman saw that bears were coming into the yard. One bear plays the tambourine, the others dance. The old people were frightened and did not know where to hide from the bears. The old woman saw a pile of ash and persuaded the old man to hide in the ash.
The bears entered the yard. They are surprised:
- Who got into our place, who ate from our cauldrons? They walked around the yard, searching, but found no one. And the old man whispers to the old woman:
“The ash got into my nose, I can’t stand it—I’m about to sneeze.” S Tarukha was scared.
“What are you saying,” he says, “is it possible to sneeze now?” The bears will find us right away. Pinch your nose with your fingers and be patient.
The old man wanted to hold his nose with his hand, but as soon as he turned around, he sneezed so much that the whole pile of ash rose up in a column. The bears were terribly scared. It seemed to them that a huge diva had appeared in their yard. The bears rushed through the gate and ran away into the forest. There they found their bear mullah and asked him to go with them and drive away the unclean spirit from their yard.
Mullah the bear put on a turban and robe and went with them.
The old man and the old woman, left alone, began to eat again. They try from one pot, then from another - they just can’t get enough.
The old woman looked through the gate and saw: the bears were coming again, and behind them was a mullah-bear in a turban and a robe. The old people were scared and didn’t know what to do. The pile of ash is gone. Where can they hide now?
They saw an old large hum in the corner of the yard and hid in it.
The bears entered the courtyard and began to look for where to put the venerable mullah. It was impossible to sit him directly on the ground, so they sat the mullah on the hum, where the old men hid.
The mullah sat down and began to read prayers. And the hem of the robe hung inside the huma.
The old woman saw this and thought: was it the old man who had leaned out and tugged at his robe!
The mullah got scared and roared obscenities.
The frightened bears barely found the gate and rushed away as fast as they could.
Without ceasing to roar, the mullah also ran after them. Out of fear, the bears ran so far that they forgot the way to their home.
The old men got out of the hut, looked around... They saw that there were no bears, with joy they ate again and began to inspect the bear farm. It turned out that the bears had plenty of wheat, rice and all sorts of good things.
All this now went to the old man and the old woman. The bears never returned here, and the old people began to live out their lives without worries.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru