There lived a husband and wife. She once said to her husband:
“Go and quarrel with your parents, and I’ll quarrel with mine.” In the evening I will cook fatty pilaf, and there will be no need to treat either your parents or my parents - we will eat it ourselves.
- How to start a quarrel? he asked.
“Go to your parents,” the wife advised, “and tell them: “Give me a well, we want to wash the wheat.” I will go to my parents and tell them: “Give me your roof, we want to dry wheat grains on it.”
This man went to his parents and told them:
- Lend me your well, we want to wash some wheat in it.
— How can I borrow a well? – his parents were surprised. - How will you take it away? It’s better to bring the wheat here and wash it here.
- I know what wonderful people you are! - he shouted. -You are disgusting in your stinginess! From today we don’t know you! And so that we don’t have your leg!
Having quarreled with his parents, he slammed the door and left.
And his wife went to her parents and said:
- Lend me your roof, we want to dry wheat grains on it.
- How will you remove the roof? - Her parents were surprised. “Go, daughter, bring the wheat here and dry it on the roof.”
- I know what generous people you are! - she screamed. – How are you better than yard dogs? Whatever we ask you for, you always answer: “We won’t give it.” From now on, you should not come to us and ask us for anything. If you decide to come, I will break your legs!
So she achieved her goal: she quarreled with her parents and incurred their wrath.
Returning home, she prepared excellent pilaf and put it in bowls. But before starting to eat, the woman said to her husband:
- Whoever says the word first will bring water to drink.
They placed bowls of pilaf in the middle of the table, and they sat down on both sides of it. They looked at each other in silence until darkness fell, without touching the food that was still on the table.
It was already past midnight, and the lights were still on in their house. The guards came to the light and through the window they saw a strange couple sitting in silence. The couple looked at each other and did not touch the pilaf standing in the middle of the table.
And the guards said to each other:
“Let’s go in and find out what’s going on here.”
They entered and began to question the owners, but they did not answer their questions. The guards hit both of them several times, but the couple continued to remain silent.
Then the guards sat down at the table, ate pilaf, put shackles on the man’s hands and led him to prison. They kept him there until the morning.
When dawn broke, the guards dragged this man to the pasha. They were very surprised that he did not answer their questions and did not speak at all.
“Beat him properly,” the Pasha ordered. “Maybe then his tongue will loosen.”
In the afternoon, when the husband did not return home, the wife thought: “I should probably go see what’s wrong with him.”
She entered the pasha's house just at the moment when her husband was being flogged.
- Why are you beating him? – the woman asked. -What did he do wrong?
Hearing that his wife spoke, the beaten man, overcoming the pain, shouted:
- Bring some water, you were the first to speak!
“Go to hell along with all your relatives!” - said the wife in anger. “They kept him locked up all night, and now they’re beating him so hard that he’ll soon give his soul to God, but his mind hasn’t improved a penny.
Then the pasha understood what was happening and let the man go. But people made fun of him for a long time.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru