There lived a rich man in a village. His house stood by the high road, and in front of the gate grew a huge mulberry tree.
One day a poor man appeared near the house and sat down to rest in the cool shade of a tree. The rich man came out and attacked him:
- Hey, don’t you dare sit here, get out and be quick? - Clean up? How so? What if I want to sit here? - the poor man objected. - This tree belongs to me. I watered it and it grew big and shady. Therefore, the shadow of the tree also belongs to me,” said the rich man. - Well, if so, then sell me this shadow. “I’ll pay you at least a little,” the poor man suggested.
Hearing the words “I will pay you,” the rich man happily agreed:
- Well, that's a completely different conversation. I can sell the shadow.
By chance, witnesses turned up right there, and the deal was completed.
And so the poor man began to come here every day to enjoy the coolness of the shady tree. If the shadow fell inside the yard, he sat down to rest in the yard; if the kitchen was in the shadow, he sat down in the kitchen; the shadow fell on the gazebo for guests - the poor man went there too. In a word, wherever there was shade, he settled down there. Sometimes he came alone, and sometimes he brought friends and acquaintances with him. It happened that even donkeys and other livestock that belonged to his friends were resting in the shade.
One day the rich man couldn’t stand it and got angry:
- Hey, why are you sitting in the yard and in the gazebo? Don't you dare come here! “Didn’t I buy the shade of this tree from you?” - the poor man objected. “And if so, then wherever the shadow falls, that’s where I sit.”
No matter how angry the rich man was, there was nothing to do.
Once guests came to the rich man, and the owner received them in the gazebo. The poor man, not paying attention to them, waddled into the gazebo and sat down in the shade. The guests looked at him in bewilderment: they thought it was strange. But having learned what was the matter, they began to laugh. The poor man laughed with them.
After this incident, everyone began to make fun of the rich man so much that he had to move to another village.
And the poor man settled in his house, and where the previous owner tied the horses, he tied his donkey. And whoever came to sit in the shade of the mulberry tree, the poor man did not drive anyone away.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru