A rich old man and an old woman lived in their house, and a poor old man and an old woman also lived in their house.
So the poor old man tied a cauldron to his belt, tied dried fish for food and went to the taiga. He lay down in the taiga.
The fox came up to him and said:
- Why did grandfather die? To say that from hunger, but he has a yukola on his belt.
The fox shouted:
- Bear, come here! Why did this old man die? Let's help him!
Bears, sables, hares, ferrets, stoats, and lynxes came running.
- Let's take grandpa home!
They carry the old man to the house. The old woman looks - a lot of animals are carrying the old man. The old woman plugged up all the cracks in the house. The animals came and brought the old man home.
Lisa says:
- Let's bring it into the house! Wait, run away!
As soon as they brought the old man into the house, the old woman immediately closed the door. The old man jumped up. The old man and the old woman grabbed hooks for hanging cauldrons and began to beat the animals with them. The bear jumped out through the smoke hole. I stained the entire skin with soot. The fox ran after him. She was hit on the paws and ears. This caused her paws and ears to turn black. The ferret was hit on the nose. His nose turned black. The ermine's tail has turned black. And the lynx was hit on the ears and paws. They were also slightly blackened. The sable was hit with a charred firebrand, and it turned completely black.
They killed a bunch of animals, and only a few escaped.
A rich old man and old woman come to visit a poor old man and old woman.
- Where did you, old man, get so many animals?
“Get,” says the old man, “more rose hips, put them in the cauldron, and lie down.” Then many animals will come to you.
And the poor old woman says to the rich one:
- Just don’t plug up the cracks in your house.
A rich old man went to the taiga. I picked rose hips, ate well, poured them into the cauldron and lay down. The fox comes.
- Why did the rich old man die? To say that he was hungry, but he still has rose hips in his cauldron.
The fox shouted:
- Bear, come here!
Bears, sables, hares, ferrets, stoats, and lynxes came.
- Let's take the rich old man home!
They carried it.
“Let’s,” says the fox, “let’s bring him into the house!”
They brought it into the house. Then the old man came to life. He and the old woman began to beat the animals. Not a single one was killed. All the animals escaped through the cracks. Since then, the poor old man became a rich man, and the rich man became a poor man. That's how they lived. All.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru