There lived seven brothers. One of them was short, but very smart.
One day his brothers slaughtered his bull and ate it, but left him nothing.
“Give me at least the skin of my bull,” the dwarf asked, “I’ll sell it.”
The brothers gave him the skin, and the dwarf set off on his way.
On the way, he saw a hole in which mice lived. The dwarf covered the entrance to the hole with the skin, like a sack, and caught the mice. And when evening came, he climbed up a tree with this sack.
Soon the merchants arrived with a caravan of mules loaded with rich goods and settled down under this tree to rest. Exactly at midnight the dwarf shook out the mice on them. The mules rushed to the sides out of fear, and the frightened merchants ran away in all directions with screams of horror.
The dwarf quickly climbed down from the tree, took everything valuable that he could carry, and returned home.
“It’s good that you killed my bull,” he said to the brothers. - Look, I sold the skin and got a whole lot of property for it. If you slaughter your bulls, you will receive the same amount.
The brothers believed him. They slaughtered their bulls and went to sell their skins.
“Buy, buy,” they shouted at the market, but people took them for swindlers and did not want to buy their goods.
And the brothers, angry, returned home. They realized that the dwarf had laughed at them and burned his house.
Then the dwarf loaded the ashes onto the mules, poured teff on top and set off.
[Teff is a type of millet.]
He drove for a long time. Finally he arrived at the house of a rich man, asked to be allowed to spend the night and said that he was carrying flour that belonged to the Negus. The rich man allowed the dwarf to stay with him.
At midnight the dwarf scattered all the ashes on the ground and began to shout:
“They stole my negus flour, and instead of it they left this ash and this teff!”
The rich man told him:
“Fill the bags with my flour and teff and take them to the Negus.” Just don't embarrass me in front of him.
The dwarf loaded his mules, returned to his brothers and said:
“You burned my house, but still I made a profit - I took away the ashes and received flour.” You will do well, brothers, if you also burn your houses and receive flour in exchange for ashes.
If they ask you who you are, say that you are the dwarf's brothers.
The brothers believed him, burned their houses, loaded the mules with ash and set off.
They drove around and shouted:
- We sell ash!
But people were only surprised: what kind of fools are these, who needs their ashes?
Finally the brothers arrived at the house of the rich man where the dwarf was spending the night.
- Who are you? - he asked.
“We are the dwarf’s brothers,” the brothers answered.
- Oh, are you the brothers of that scoundrel?! How dare you appear in front of me? - the rich man shouted and ordered them to be beaten with sticks.
And then the brothers decided to get rid of the dwarf. They returned home, grabbed him and put him in a basket that was used to collect honeycombs. They carried the basket to the edge of the abyss, and they themselves went to cut the branches in order to lower the basket onto them.
At this time, a man was passing along the road on a mule. He thought that there were honeycombs in the basket, looked into it and saw a dwarf.
- Who are you? – the traveler asked in surprise.
“I am a monk and I sit here in order to be cleansed of sins,” answered the dwarf.
“I, too, would gladly get rid of them,” said the traveler. “Let me sit in this basket for a while, and you get out and look after my mule for now.”
He immediately climbed into the basket, and the dwarf sat on the mule and was like that.
Returning with the branches, the brothers hung the basket over the abyss, and the basket fell down. Satisfied that they had finally gotten rid of the dwarf, the brothers returned home. But the dwarf met them in the yard.
“I found this mule in the abyss where you threw me,” he said. – Why don’t you visit there too? You would also find mules.
The brothers believed him this time too.
- Throw us into the abyss too! - they asked. That's all the dwarf needed. So, thanks to his intelligence, he became the owner of all the brothers’ wealth.
It's good to be strong. But being smart is even better.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru