There lived three brothers: Yuhabi, Yuskabi and Yurkabi. The older brothers were smart, but everyone considered the younger one a fool. His name was the fool Yurkabi.
One day the brothers went to the forest to prepare firewood for the winter. The old mother put bread and salt and various provisions for the brew into their bast-woven pouch.
The brothers arrived in the forest and got to work. Oak after oak is felled, the branches are cleared and piled. The day passed without anyone noticing. Evening has come, it is about to get completely dark.
The brothers stuck their axes in and started cooking dinner. Just as they were about to light a fire, it turned out that they had no matches, they had forgotten them at home. What should I do? We decided to climb the tallest oak tree and see if there was a light visible somewhere. The elder Yuhabi got up and looked - a light was flickering far, far in the east. He got down from the oak tree and went in that direction.
How long or short did he walk through the forest until he came to the fire. A little old man sits next to him, warming his hands.
“Could you please give me a light, grandpa, to light a fire,” Yuhabi asked, “otherwise we started cooking dinner and forgot the matches at home.”
“Why not give it to me, I’ll give it to you,” the old man answers, “but first you sing, dance and tell me a fairy tale.”
“I can’t sing or dance, and I’ve never told a fairy tale,” says Yuhabi.
“Well then, I don’t even have fire for you,” the old man said curtly.
Yuhabi returned to his brothers with nothing. The middle brother, Yuskabi, went to the old man for fire. First, he also climbed a tall oak tree, saw in which direction the fire was burning, and went in that direction.
Yuskabi comes to the fire and asks the old man for a light.
“Sing, dance, tell a story, then I’ll give you fire,” the old man answers him.
“They didn’t teach me either one or the other or the third as a child,” says Yuskabi.
“Well, then I don’t have any fire for you,” said the old man. He returned to his brothers and Yuskabi empty-handed.
It was the turn of the younger brother, the fool Yurkabi, to go get the fire.
Yurkabi started off at random, but soon lost his way. He climbed a tall tree, looked around, and saw in the east, where dawn had already begun, a fire was burning. He went downstairs and walked towards dawn. Comes to the fire. He sees an old man by the fire. Yurkabi bowed to the old man at the waist:
- Hello, grandfather! How do you live? Can you?
“Thank you, good fellow, I live slowly,” the old man replies. “How far are you going?”
“Yes, my brothers and I came to prepare firewood for the winter, we worked all day, and now we started cooking dinner, but there was nothing to light a fire with,” Yurkabi explained to the old man. “So I came to ask you for a light.”
“Well, I’ll give you some light,” says the old man, “just show yourself first: sing, dance, tell a fairy tale.”
He paused, thought Yurkabi, and then answered the old man like this:
“I’m not an expert at singing and dancing, but I can tell a fairy tale, just too much!” - sit and listen in silence, if you interrupt me, you give me a handful of coals and a hundred rubles in addition.
The old man nodded his head in agreement and prepared to listen.
“One day,” began Yurkabi, “when my parents were not yet in the world, I sat on my piebald mare, put an ax in my belt and rode into the forest. I rode for a long time, I looked back - my mare had no hind legs, the ax must have fallen from behind and chopped them off. There is nothing to be done, I turned the mare back to find her other half. I reach the herd, look, and there, among other horses, are the hind legs of my mare grazing. Well, I drove up to them, matched them with the front ones and, for strength, nailed them together with wooden nails. I'm moving on...
The old man listens and strokes his white beard. And Yurkabi further says:
- How long or short did I drive, I looked back - young oak trees grew from my nails. And one oak tree is so tall that it almost reached the sky. Well, without thinking twice, I climbed up this oak tree, climbed to the very top of its head, and I looked - just in front of me was the gate through which you can get to heaven. I enter these gates and walk across the sky. The road is smooth as electricity. In the middle of the sky, I see, a mahogany tree is growing, and on a tree of unprecedented beauty a bird is sitting: gold earrings glitter in its ears, pearl bracelets on its hands, crystal shoes on its feet, its lush tail glows like a rainbow, its eyes sparkle with emeralds. “What a beautiful bird,” I think, “I wish I could catch it!” But as soon as he extended his hand, the bird disappeared somewhere and it immediately became dark, like in a cellar...
The old man listens, strokes his gray beard, and Yurkabi continues:
“I turned back, but I couldn’t see either the road or my tracks in the pitch darkness. “How can I get to the gate?” - Think. And just like that I thought - a wonderful bird flew nearby and illuminated everything around me. It turned out that I was standing right next to the gate. I looked down - I couldn’t see the mare under me; she had probably run off to graze somewhere. “What should I do?” I think again. “How can I come down from heaven to earth again?” Out of nowhere, the wind rose and brought me a whole armful of straw. Then I perked up; He twisted a rope out of that straw, tied it to the gates of heaven and began to descend to earth. It took me a long time to get down. But the rope has ended, and the ground is still far away. I’m hanging at the very end, the wind swings me back and forth. I swayed and swayed, the rope broke, and I flew down. I thought I was on earth, but it turned out I was in hell. Well, in hell, as is well known, the devils carry wood for boilers and manure on the souls of sinners. And now I see, grandfather, the devils are harnessing your soul, and when they have harnessed it, they force me to carry manure on it...
“Well, you’re not telling the truth,” the old man could not stand it. “My soul is with me.”
“Well, let it stay with you,” Yurkabi said to this. “And I’ll pick up coals from you and send a hundred rubles in addition.”
The old man groaned and scratched his head, but only an agreement is an agreement. He gave Yurkabi a handful of coals and a hundred rubles in addition.
With that, the fool Yurkabi went to his smart brothers.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru