Once upon a time there lived a peasant who was so poor that he did not have a single piece of iron on his farm. He had to cut down the forest and cultivate the land with stone and wooden tools.
From morning to night he worked hard, but could not get out of poverty.
And this peasant was so dirty and ragged that girls turned away when they met him, children hastily ran away, and old people sadly covered their faces with their hands and cried.
And the poor guy had to suffer alone. Even animals and birds avoided him. The forest, when he came to it, became deserted, the stream, not wanting to talk with the poor man, stopped babbling and silently flowed its waters.
One day a peasant saw a wonderful dream. He dreamed that a spirit descended to earth and said to him:
“Tomorrow three horsemen will ride past you and ask for accommodation for the night.” Make sure you don't refuse them!
And indeed, the next day the peasant saw a man riding past his hut on horseback.
The rider was dressed all in white, and the horse underneath was also white. They were cold.
– Do you have a place to spend the night?
– the rider shouted. “Get ready!”
“In my pitiful hut there is no decent accommodation for you,” answered the bewildered peasant. “I ask you, sir, to look for it in another place.”
A little later, he saw a rider in a dazzling yellow outfit riding a yellow horse. Storm clouds crawled across the sky behind him, and when the horse and rider approached, a gust of cold wind came from the mountains. The peasant got scared and refused the traveler accommodation for the night.
In the evening, shortly before moonrise, he saw a third horseman, dressed all in black, ugly and stocky. Under him was a large, strong black horse.
As the rider approached, the sky on the horizon lit up, a cool breeze brought the smell of mountain forests, the birds on the roof of the house chirped in unison, and the stream babbled louder on the stones, as if wanting to say: “Leave him to spend the night, leave him to spend the night!” And the peasant himself did not feel any fear this time.
But a strange thing: the next morning the stranger disappeared, and in the place where he slept, a large black piece of iron remained.
Then the peasant realized that the first two horsemen were spirits of silver and gold. He was overcome with regret, but the birds above him chirped in chorus:
- Don't be sorry, don't be sorry! And the animals from the forest shouted:
– There is no price for iron, there is no price for iron!
The peasant made a plow and a shovel from the piece of iron he had received and began to plow the field.
Soon shoots appeared on the peasant’s plot, and then snow-white rice appeared in his cup.
Since the iron plow made the peasant's work easier, his life became easier and he no longer walked around dirty and ragged. Now the girls, passing by, looked at him, the children clung to him, the old people rejoiced when they met him. The birds greeted the peasant with their singing, and the stream in the forest murmured cheerfully and incessantly for him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru