Once upon a time there lived a girl who was so nice that her mother gave her a gold ring on her name day. The ring was a little big, but the girl was so happy with it that she took it with her everywhere. One day her mother sent her to the spring to bring a jug of water. The girl went and took off the ring at the spring so as not to drop it in the water, and put it on a stone. I washed the jug, scooped up some water and headed back, but I only remembered about the forgotten ring when I came home.
I rushed back, but there was no ring on the stone. I looked here and there - there was no ring. He sees an old man sitting by the spring, a beggar.
He asks her:
-What are you looking for, beauty?
The girl cried and answered:
“I left a gold ring here on a stone, but I can’t find it.” If I don’t find it, it will come to me from my mother.
“Don’t worry, daughter,” the old man answers. “Come here, put your hand in your bag and take your ring, I put it there.”
As soon as the girl grabbed her bag, the old man pushed her there, tied the bag with a ribbon and threw it over his shoulder.
And the girl cried and asked, and the old man answered:
“I’ll let you out if you sing when I say:
Sing, madam, as I want,
Otherwise I’ll beat you up.
And he began to walk around the villages, looking for food for himself. Wherever he comes, he puts the bag in the middle of the street and says:
Sing, madam, as I want,
Otherwise I’ll beat you up.
And the girl sings:
My money has become my grave,
and melancholy dries me out:
why do I need my ring
forgot at the spring?
People thought that the bag was enchanted and threw money at the old man. And he will collect them, throw the bag on his shoulder and go to another village. So everything went on, and he saved a lot of money. “Now,” he thinks, “I’ll live a glorious life.” He turned into the inn and asked for dinner. You've eaten and drunk, you have to pay. He put the knapsack on the floor and said:
Sing, madam, as I want,
Otherwise I’ll beat you up.
The girl sang:
My money has become my grave,
and melancholy dries me out:
why do I need my ring
forgot at the spring?
She sang and cried, and the hostess suspected something was wrong. Then the old man went for a short walk and decided to leave his bag at the tavern. He went out, the hostess took the bag and saw: there was a girl sitting in it, and such a nice one, only barely alive from hunger and cold. They fed her, warmed her and hid her. And they let all sorts of evil spirits into the bag: toads, rats, snakes and lizards.
In the morning the old man had to pay for his lodging for the night, but he was too sorry for the money, and he decided to raise some new ones. He put the bag on the floor, but no matter how much he repeated:
Sing, madam, as I want,
otherwise I’ll beat you, -
There's not a sound from there. The old man paid with what he had, and he almost burst from anger. In order not to untie his bag in public, he climbed into the mountains. And well, he beat her with a stick, and he beat her, and he cursed, but he didn’t achieve anything, he just angered the evil spirits in his bag. He untied the ribbon, and the creatures all rushed at him, and let them bite and sting until they bit him to death. And the girl returned to her father and mother and lived well. Bread, salt, cucumber, and that’s the end of the fairy tale.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru