In ancient times, one man's son was such a strong man that no one in the entire district could resist him. The strong man decided to go to other lands to look for an enemy. He goes one day, goes another, and cannot find a suitable opponent anywhere. Finally, the strong man came into one of the huts, and there the old woman was measuring flat cakes in fours.
-Where are you going, guy? - asks the old lady.
“I’m looking for an enemy so I can measure my strength.”
“When both my sons return, you’ll see: maybe they’ll come up.”
The old woman baked another quadrangle of flat cakes and is waiting for her sons. Soon the sons appeared; each has a deer under his arm and a roe deer on his little finger. The old woman placed a quadrangle of flatbreads in front of each person and invited the guest to the third quadrangle. The sons ate their cakes in one sitting and drank half a barrel of beer. But the guest can’t even eat the top of his quadruple, let alone eat half a barrel! He looked at his brothers and felt uneasy: he would rather fight in the morning.
In the evening, the old woman made a bed for one son at one door, for another at another, and for the guest in the middle. At night, one son coughed so hard that a guest from the middle of the hut flew to the other doors, right at the second son. Then the second son coughed, and the guest flew away like a feather back to the first. So the strongman’s brothers threw him around the hut all night long, like a bag of chaff, from end to end.
The next morning he had no time for fighting, he rushed to run with all his might, and his brothers followed him. Luckily for him, the fugitive met a man with a thick log on his shoulder. The strong man prayed for the man to save him from pursuit. The man threw down a log, grabbed both brothers, put one in one pocket of his pants, the other in the other, and said:
“Now don’t yawn, run and be quick while they’re in my pockets.” As soon as you run away so that I can’t see you, then I’ll let them out.
At home, the son told his father about this and was still surprised:
- Who would have thought! I’m so strong, but I’ve met people like me that I’m not worth their little finger. Those two were strong, but where could they care about the third!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru