In the old days there was a poor man named Savva, who was engaged in rifle hunting. One day in the spring, when the birds had just begun to arrive, this man killed one goose. “What good is it to me,” he thought and took this goose to his rich neighbor. The owner was very pleased, even delighted.
He had heard before that Savva was considered a reasonable person and a good hunter. To check this for himself, he said: “By bringing this goose, you made me happy. You yourself know: I have an old woman, two sons, two daughters. There are six of us, but how can we divide and eat the goose without offending anyone? You could have divided it yourself." And Savva began to divide the goose like this: “You are the owner of the house - the head of the family, you are always at the head of everyone, so you are entitled to the head.” Having said this, he cut off and gave him the protruding head of the goose. “The old woman always sits at home, so she is entitled to the place where they sit,” and, cutting off the rump, he gave it to her. “The sons will follow in the footsteps, they are such people,” saying this, he cut off a leg for each guy. “Daughters, as you know, dry their wings in order to fly away from their home,” saying this, he gave them each a wing. “And the round body should go to me, the round fool,” he said and kept the rest for himself. The owner of the house was very pleased. “You divided it exactly as I thought, you even made me happy and delighted,” he said, and to celebrate, he generously presented him with food supplies and even gave him money. Savva went home rich.
Having heard about this, one of Savva’s neighbors took to the same rich man the five geese he had killed, boiled and prepared, in order to quickly receive a reward from the rich man. The rich gentleman, guessing that this one came out of greed, having learned about the gifts Savva received, did not greet him so joyfully. He said: “There are six of us. How can we divide these five geese so that no one is offended? You yourself divide them between us.” What to do, he tried to divide, but could not please the owner. Because of this, the owner got angry, did not give him anything, and shouted at him: “You only came here because of greed!” And he kicked him out.
Then he remembered Savva and decided to see how he would share, delight, and amuse. He ordered to call the hunter. Savva came and divided the geese like this: “The owner and mistress have one goose, then there will be three of you and the goose. I give one goose to two guys, then together with the goose there will also be three of them. I also give one goose to the two girls, then, counting the goose, there will also be three of them. I take the remaining two geese, then there will also be three of us with these geese. There are three of us all, we all have an equal number.” Seeing this, the owner of the house was more rejoiced than before, cheered up and gave Savva so many different food supplies, flour and money that he was very pleased.
Since then they began to call him Resourceful Savva.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru