One father had two sons. The eldest was of a quiet disposition, and the younger was cheerful, always joking. His name was Pedro, and people called him Pedro the Joker.
One day the father called his sons and said:
- Sons, one of you will have to go and work as a farm laborer. We are very poor.
So the father said and sent his eldest son to serve the landowner.
The landowner and his wife occupied the whole house together.
On the very first day, the owners forced the guy to work from dawn to sunset.
For breakfast he was given a loaf of bread. And the landowner and his wife ate ham, sausage and all sorts of things. For lunch, the worker was again given a piece of bread. He got the same thing for dinner.
- Caramba! - said the poor man. - This way I’ll die of hunger. Instead of lunch, they only give you a piece of bread! I won't survive!
He endured it for several days, and then returned to his father.
The father asked how his life was. The guy told how the landowner mocked him.
The youngest son, Pedro the joker, approached.
“You’ve been a fool,” he said. “Let me work with this landowner and see if they dare to feed me one piece of bread!”
“Okay,” said the father, “go.”
He went to work for the landowner Pedro. And they treated him the same way as their older brother. On the first day he worked until dawn, and for breakfast they gave him a piece of bread. The landowner unlocked a large chest and took out ham, sausage and other food. Pedro ate his bread and sat down on the stall. The landowner gave him harness and told him to repair it.
Here Pedro is sitting on the chest - working and silent. It's time for lunch. The landowner says:
- Come here, Pedro, have lunch - eat some bread.
And Pedro answers:
- No, master, I’m not going anywhere. I’m so used to it: I always eat where I work.
And he didn’t get up from the stall.
What to do here? The landowner and his wife thought and thought, but they couldn’t come up with anything: they couldn’t get anything out of the chest. And we were left without lunch.
In the evening the landowner again turned to Pedro:
- Well, now you can go to the kitchen. Bread has already been prepared for you there.
“No, master,” Pedro answered, “I always eat at the place where I work.” So this piece will be yours.
The owners did not know what to do: Pedro was sitting on the chest. They could get food from there with him, but then they would have to share it with the farm laborer, and that’s something they didn’t want. They were simply starving. Finally the landowner was found.
“Okay, guy,” he said to Pedro, “stop working, it’s time to sleep.” Here's your bed.
“No, master,” Pedro objected, “I’m used to sleeping where I eat and work.”
The owners went to bed hungry. They didn’t want Pedro to see how many tasty things were stored in the chest. But hunger tormented them more and more. They lay there and just thought about how to get something from the chest, but without Pedro finding out about it.
However, Pedro slept soundly on the chest, and throughout the night the landowner and his wife did not have to eat. At dawn, Pedro's hosts rose. “Listen,” the landowner’s wife said, “I remembered that upstairs, in the attic, I have some peas in a pot.”
She brought a pot of peas and set it to boil. Then Pedro took a moment and threw a handful of ash into the pot.
The hostess came up to stir the peas, saw that they were full of ash, and poured everything into the trash. She told her husband about this.
“Oh, I’m so hungry,” said the landowner, “that I wouldn’t refuse a loaf of bread right now!”
- Wait! - said the landowner. “Now I’ll send him out, then we’ll eat our fill.”
“Listen, Pedro,” said the landowner, turning to the farmhand. - Morning has come, it’s time for you to get to work: you need to drive out the cattle.
- What morning? - said Pedro. - I haven't had dinner yet.
This means there was no night. And since there was no night, it means that morning did not come. And since morning has not come, it means we can still sleep.
And he lay down on the chest and began to snore. The greedy landowner looked at his wife, she and both sighed at him.
“This tramp,” said the landowner, “is used to sleeping on an empty stomach.” What about us?
- Pedro! - said the landowner, pushing the farmhand aside.
- Get up, Pedro! Let's eat and start working!
- What about the evening? What about dinner? – asked Pedro.
- Oh! - the landowner groaned, gritting his teeth. - Evening, dinner, and breakfast - it’s all here! Just don’t languish, get off the bench!
- What a deal! - said Pedro. – It would have been like this a long time ago: ham for dinner, sausage for breakfast!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru