In Bukhara there lived a greedy, greedy buy named Boki, who was ready to hang himself for one penny. In greed and stinginess, he found no equal and was very proud of it. One joker wanted to laugh at him and said:
“It’s wrong for you to consider yourself an unsurpassed miser.” Bai Soki lives in Samarkand. With his stinginess he will peck you without a beak!
This message greatly alarmed Boki, but he said irritably:
“Even if this Soki is Plato, he cannot be more famous in miserliness than I am!” Well, let me see what a miracle it is!
And, having hired himself a cart, Boki went to Samarkand. The misers met there. Everyone tried to prove their superiority. Boki was the first to cast his fishing rod:
“Brother Soki-bai, I had to visit your city on trade matters. I brought some tea here, but it doesn't sell well here. Please lend me two pieces of silver before tomorrow!
Soki thought for a long time and finally, for the first acquaintance, decided to borrow two pieces of silver on the condition that the debt would be returned to him in the morning with a profit of half a tanga.
Having received two pieces of silver, Boki thought: “With such fame, he immediately fell for my bait - no, I see, he is far from me!”
Reassured, he left for Bukhara that same day.
Sookie waited a day, waited two:
“I lived to be forty years old, but I have never given a single copper to anyone!” Who is this guy who came from Bukhara and stole my two pieces of silver?
Without thinking twice, he hired himself a cart and went to Bukhara.
Upon learning of Soka's arrival, Boki said to his wife and children:
“I will pretend to be dead, you will weep bitterly for me, and if they ask me, say that I died suddenly tonight.”
When Soki came to Boka's house, the family said what they were told. Expressing deep condolences, Sookie asked permission to see the deceased:
“I was a close friend of Boka: in the event of his death, he bequeathed to me to wash and bury him. So now I’ll bring the washer!
And, leaving for a while, having bought four bag needles, Sookie brought with him two washers. Then, ordering two bunches of dry thorns and a cauldron of hot water to be brought from the yard, he removed everyone except the washers from the room where the “dead man” lay. He sat down at the head of the bed and said to the “dead man” in his ear:
“Now I’ve got you, give me two pieces of silver, or I’ll stick four bag needles in you!”
The “dead man” was silent. Sookie pricked him with a needle, blood appeared, but Boki didn’t make a sound.
- Damn you! - cried Sookie. - Tell me, will you give up my two tangas or not? Otherwise I will put you on the thorns and wash you with boiling water!
The “dead man” did not move. Soki scattered thorns on the floor, laid the naked Boki on them and turned him from side to side a couple of times. When, to his surprise, this did not work either, he began to pour hot water on Boki, ordering the washers to rub the “dead man” harder. After washing, Soki wrapped Boki in a shroud and prepared him for the funeral, but again, bending down to his ear, he said:
“Know that if you don’t give up my two pieces of silver, I will bury you alive.” You won't get rid of me with such tricks!
The “dead man” did not make a sound. They put him in a coffin and carried him to the cemetery. When Sookie laid the “dead man” in the grave, he repeated again:
- Boki, have pity on your soul - if you agree to give my money now, I will let you go, but if not, then I will tightly cover you with a heavy slab, then you will really die!
Boki did not give himself away with a single movement. Soki covered the hole with a stove. The men who saw off the “dead man” read the Koran over the grave and went home.
But Sookie still didn’t believe in Boki’s actual death, he thought: “Of course, Boki will come out of his grave at night, and I’ll catch him,” and decided to lie down behind the nearest hillock and watch.
It was already midnight, but Boki did not leave the grave. Five or six thieves came running to the cemetery and began dividing up some stolen things. The thieves were sitting not far from Boka’s grave; they divided everything except the sword, which everyone wanted to get. In a heated argument over a sword, one thief suggested: “Whoever cuts a recently buried dead man in half with one swing will receive the sword!”
But as soon as they dragged the recently buried Boki out of the grave, he
shouted with good obscenities:
- Hey, dead people! Get up, let's not fall into the hands of these robbers! Sookie, who was lying nearby, stood up and yelled:
- We got up, get up and others!
The thieves, in wild horror, abandoned the stolen things, two of them died of a broken heart, and the rest, running from the cemetery to their leader, told about what had happened! But the leader still did not believe his comrades, and alone went to the cemetery to see what was going on there. Stealthily, he crawled from grave to grave and suddenly saw two people sitting by a gaping hole and dividing things between themselves. He crept closer and listened:
“All things have been divided,” said Soki, “now give me two of my pieces of silver!”
“But thanks to them, you received a lot of valuable things,” Boki objected to him, “are your two pieces of silver really not paid for?”
“No,” Sookie persisted, “we got these things by luck, my money had nothing to do with this, pay back your debt now!”
Then Boki noticed behind Soka’s back a man wearing a new skullcap worn askew.
“Here, take this instead of your two pieces of silver!” said Boki, tearing the skullcap off the thief’s head.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru