One day the blue devil from the Great Cave decided to become a saint and become famous for his good deeds. He put on the most beautiful clothes and sent his relatives and acquaintances to all corners of the Celestial Empire with the news that he was undertaking to fulfill people’s deepest desires. Soon lines of people, eager to receive what was promised, reached the cave where the devil lived.
The first to appear before the devil was the poor peasant. I just wanted to turn to the evil one with my request, as the devil says:
- Go home. Your wish is granted.
The peasant returned home, began to look for bags of gold and silver, when suddenly he saw a neighbor coming to his house, and on his shoulders instead of his own, there was a boar’s head, rolling his eyes and snapping his tusks. The peasant was horrified: “Do I really have such desires?”
After the peasant, an old woman approached the devil, carrying a man with withered legs on her back. She laid it at the feet of the devil and said:
- Fulfill my son's deepest wish. I will be grateful to you for the rest of my life.
The devil looked at the man, and his hands withered.
The old woman began to cry and scream:
- What have you done, damned one!
And the devil says:
“What should I do, if since childhood he wanted his hands to wither, then you won’t be able to force him to weave boxes and you will feed him from your hands.”
There is nothing to do. The mother threw her son on her shoulders and ran out of the cave before her son wanted anything else.
The devil never became a saint. There was a bad reputation about him. But he himself is to blame for this. Who the hell should know that innermost desires are not always desired.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru