Once upon a time there lived an old man and an old woman. They had one rooster and a millstone. The rooster had a miraculous ability - he understood human speech. And the millstone - if you turned to the right - it gave you money for lunch, if you turned to the left - it gave you cornmeal for hominy.
One day the old man went into the forest to get firewood and stayed there until evening.
That day, the prince’s hunters with their dogs came to the old woman and asked her to feed them.
The old woman approached the millstone and turned it to the left - corn flour fell out, turned to the right - money fell out, with which she bought cheese and meat for the guests. Then the old woman went to the spring for water.
The princely hunters who saw all this were surprised. When the old woman went out to fetch water, they decided: “Why did the old man and the old woman need a magic millstone? It will be better if we take it for our prince, for this he can reward us,”
They took the millstone and took it to their prince.
When the old woman returned from the spring, she noticed that there were no guests or a millstone. She sat down on a bench and cried bitterly.
Hearing the old woman’s cry, the Rooster, who climbed the fence, called out: “Why are you crying, old woman?”
The old woman replied that her millstone was taken by the prince's hunters.
“Don’t cry,” the rooster reassured her. - I will return the millstone to you. Having said this, the rooster flew to the princely estate. And there, sitting on the tower, he began to crow loudly. When the rooster began to annoy him with his cry, the prince called the servants and asked them why the rooster was crowing so much.
They answered him:
- The rooster demands that the millstone be returned to the old people.
“Immediately shoot this rooster, fry it and serve it to me,” the prince ordered.
And so they did. The prince's servants shot the rooster, fried it, served it to the prince, and he ate it.
But then a miracle happened: the prince heard the piercing crow of a rooster coming from his stomach.
- A misfortune has happened! - the prince shouted. “This very minute, rip open my belly and take the rooster out of there, so that I am safe and sound.”
The servants ripped open his stomach. A rooster flew out from there, grabbed a millstone and flew to the old man and old woman. Those, having received their millstone, were as important as before. And the prince gave up his ghost.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru