The old soldier was on leave. I'm tired from the journey and want to eat. I reached the village, knocked on the last hut:
- Let the dear man rest! An old woman opened the door. “Come in, servant.” “Don’t you have anything to eat, mistress?” The old woman had plenty of everything, but she was stingy with feeding the soldier, pretending to be an orphan. “Oh, good man, I haven’t eaten anything today either: I have nothing to eat.” “Well, no, no,” the soldier says. Then he noticed an ax under the bench. “If there is nothing else, you can cook porridge with an ax.”
The hostess clasped her hands:
“How can you cook porridge from an ax?” “Here’s how, give me the cauldron.”
The old woman brought a cauldron, the soldier washed the ax, lowered it into the cauldron, poured water and put it on the fire. The old woman looks at the soldier, does not take her eyes off. The soldier took out a spoon and stirred the brew. I tried it.
- Well, how? - asks the old woman. - It will be ready soon, - the soldier answers, - it’s just a pity that there is nothing to salt with. - I have salt, salt it.
The soldier added salt and tried it again.
- Good! If only I could get a handful of cereal here! The old woman began to fuss and brought a bag of cereal from somewhere. “Take it, fill it up as needed.” Seasoned the brew with cereal. I cooked, cooked, stirred, tried. The old woman looks at the soldier with all her eyes, she can’t tear herself away. “Oh, and the porridge is good!” — the soldier licked his lips. “If only a little butter would come here, it would be absolutely delicious.”
The old woman also found oil. The porridge was flavored.
“Well, old woman, now give me some bread and get to work with a spoon: let’s start eating porridge!” “I didn’t think that you could cook such good porridge from an ax,” the old woman marvels.
The two of us ate porridge. The old woman asks:
- Servant! When are we going to eat the ax? “Yes, you see, it’s not cooked down,” answered the soldier, “I’ll finish cooking it somewhere on the road and have breakfast!”
He immediately hid the ax in his backpack, said goodbye to the hostess and went to another village. That's how the soldier ate the porridge and took away the ax!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru