Once a shepherd was tending sheep, and one lamb was in the stream
drowned.
- What should I do? – the boy was saddened. - The hostess will scold, the owner will not give pastala. Oh, damn!
As soon as he said this, there was a rustling sound in the treetops, and the devil was right there.
-What do you want, boy?
- And so that you pay me for the lamb, you dragged it into the stream yourself!
- How much do you want?
- A cap full of money!
- OK. If you do everything I tell you, I’ll give you a whole lot of money. First, we’ll run a race, second, we’ll throw stones up, third, we’ll squeeze stones.
The boy agreed.
“But I won’t run a race with you,” he says. “You have to keep an eye on the cattle so that they don’t waste their bread.” My younger brother will run instead of me; he is sleeping here in the forest under a juniper tree. I told him that he had to run. Just call: “Yanit, Yanit, let’s run!”
Damn you little brother. The boy heard the devil call “Yanit!” and there was a stomp. Soon the devil returned: the hare overtook him.
The devil and the boy began to throw stones upward. The devil grabbed a large stone and threw it up. The stone fell three hours later and went three fathoms into the ground. And the guy took the bird out of his pocket and threw it, and after three hours it did not return. Will the bird come back? The devil is the loser again.
The devil grabbed the stone and squeezed it so hard that dust came out of the stone.
“Do they really squeeze so hard,” the boy laughs, “look, I’ll squeeze so hard that the juice will flow!”
The guy took an apple out of his bag and squeezed it so that the juice from the apple splashed out. There is nothing to do, and this time the devil lost.
“Well, now quickly run into the heat,” says the boy, “and take the money!”
The devil ran for the money. Meanwhile, the guy made a hole in his hat and stood near the potato pit. The devil came with money, poured in, poured in, but the hat was still empty: all the money fell into the potato hole.
- How big is your hat! - the devil is surprised.
– Don’t talk in vain, the rash is full!
The devil ran for money nine times. Finally, both the hat and the potato pit are full.
Now the shepherd had so much money that he was able to pay the owner for the drowned lamb, and he had more than enough left for himself.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru