An old man from the village was walking and met a young man. The young man asked him:
-Whose village is this? The old man replied:
- This is the village of one stingy rich man. The young man was surprised and asked again:
- Why do you call him stingy?
- But because I have lived in this village for many years and have never seen a rich man eat anything during the day. And everyone who lives with him does not know when and what he eats.
- This cannot be.
- No, it's true. Let me die if this is a lie. Then the young man said:
“I will not only find out what kind of food the greedy rich man has, but I will also take his daughter as my wife.”
“Where you are, it won’t work out for you,” answered the old man. “More than one man has achieved this, but left with nothing, and you won’t succeed at all.”
“I can do it,” said the young man and went to the village.
Late in the evening, he quietly approached the back wall of the stingy rich man's tent and lay down there. I lay there for a long time. Everyone in the village had already fallen asleep; only the stingy rich man was awake; a fire was burning in his tent.
The young man looked through the crack and saw: the old man was burning the hind legs of lamb on the fire, and his daughter was baking unleavened cakes. He looked, looked and went into the tent.
The old man heard footsteps and hid the legs of lamb under his shirt, and the daughter hid the cakes under the hem.
The young man entered the wagon and said:
“I was walking to your village and on the way I saw a bloodthirsty snake in the steppe, just like the legs of lamb under the old man’s shirt.” He took a stone and hit the snake with it. Then the kite flew and became just like the cakes under the hem of the old man’s daughter.
The rich man got scared, kept quiet, but still didn’t show his legs of lamb.
Then the young man said that he had nowhere to go at night and therefore he would have to spend the night here. There is nothing to be done, the rich man had to agree.
The young man lay down, but the rich man did not lie down. So the rich man decided that the young man had fallen asleep, and said to his wife:
“We have to survive this young man, otherwise he’ll talk about us.” Before morning I will burn his boots and drown his horse in the well. Now make me another flatbread, I’ll go out into the yard and eat it, otherwise this devil won’t let me eat in peace. Where did it come from just to us!
At dawn, when the rich man was still sleeping, the young man got up, took his boots and put them in the place of the rich man’s boots, and put his boots with him, got out of the wagon, took the rich man’s black horse and sprinkled it with flour, and painted his white one with black paint. After that he returned to the tent and went to bed.
The rich man woke up and grabbed his boots. Then he took his horse and drowned it. And I thought that I had drowned someone else’s horse.
Early in the morning the rich man wakes up the young man and shouts:
- Hey, your boots are burnt! The young man stood up and said:
“My boots aren’t burned, they’re standing there, I recognize them right away, they’re torn.”
I took my boots and put them on. The rich man was left without boots. Then the rich man shouts again:
- Hey, your horse drowned! And the young man calmly answers:
- My horse is a scientist, she is smart enough not to drown in a well. You are wrong.
- No, I’m not mistaken, let’s go see. We left the tent. The young man washed his horse with water, and it became white again.
“You see, my horse is white, and yours is black, which means it’s my horse.”
So the rich man was left without a horse. He quickly ran home and said to his wife:
“I’m lost, give me some flatbread quickly, I’ll take it with me and eat it in the steppe, otherwise this shaitan won’t let me eat in peace.”
The wife took out the flatbread, the old man took it and was about to put it in his pocket, but didn’t have time.
The young man entered the tent and asked:
-Where are you going, old man?
- I'm going to work.
“Well then, goodbye.” And he extended his hand to the old man. The old man has nothing to do, he threw the cakes out of anger, grabbed his scythe and ran out of the wagon.
The young man picked up the cakes, ate them, and then followed the old man. I caught up with him in the steppe and said:
“Old man, your daughter took my beshmet and won’t give it back, I would have left the village a long time ago.”
The old man got angry, was afraid that the young man would now tell everyone about his daughter, and said:
- Take, Shaitan, both your beshmet and my daughter along with it.
The young man quickly returned to the wagon and said:
- The old man allowed me to marry your daughter. If you don't believe it, then ask him yourself.
The old woman screams, swears, and does not give up her daughter. An old man and a young man came and said to him:
“Old man, my mother won’t give me my daughter as a wife.”
“Give it back, old woman,” said the greedy rich man, “let him get out of here, Satan.”
The young man took the rich man's daughter as his wife and lived happily with her.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru