Wealth of mind does not bring. And the greed of the latter deprives him of his mind...
Two people lived on the Amur: the Nikan merchant Li-Fu and the Nanai hunter Aktanka. They were different people.
Aktanka caught fish, killed animals, worked all his life, but still lived in poverty. Li-Fu didn’t know how to put an arrow on a bow, he couldn’t tell a jay from a hazel grouse, he hadn’t caught a single fish in his life, he didn’t know what a seine was - he didn’t know, he just counted money, yes, he sat in a shop, traded, and lived richly. Aktanka gave him all his loot for cereals and flour.
Li-Fu was a greedy and dishonest man. He took furs from Aktanka. In his thick book he wrote down what he took, what he gave. But he wrote it down incorrectly. But Aktanka was illiterate, and he himself could not calculate how much he owed Li-Fu.
And it turned out that the more successful Aktanka hunted, the more expensive Li-Fu’s goods became. Aktanka cannot pay its debt! And Li-Fu comes running every day and shouts: “Hey, you, don’t lie down!” Go hunting! The duty is yours!
Once he took away Li-Fu’s nets from Aktanka for a debt. The merchant has gone completely stupid from greed; he doesn’t understand that Aktanka won’t catch anything without tackle.
Aktanka thought, thought. I thought for a long time. He made a snare from the veins of the elk, and a crossbow alerted him on the path along which the wild boar walked to drink. The boar went to drink water - a crossbow knocked him down. Again Aktanka has production. Aktanka began to cook the meat. Li-Fu heard the smell of meat and came running. On
the hunter screams, stamps his feet, points his finger at his thick book:
- Hey, you, repay your debt!
Aktanka gave him all the meat. And that’s not enough for Li-Fu: he took the crossbow and the snare! Here's how...
Aktanka's wife Ainka says:
- What are we going to do, Mr. Li-Fu? Without gear, you can’t take prey, you can’t get meat, you can’t get skin.
Li-Fu doesn’t listen to her, grabs everything and leaves. Ainka cried. Aktanka tells her:
- It’s okay, wife, we’ll get by somehow. I thought and thought. I thought for a long time. Then from the branch
Tisa made a small bow and went into the taiga.
Aktanka has a sharp eye and a steady hand. As he shoots an arrow, he will kill a bird. I got a lot of game. Brought it home. Ainka began to roast the bird on a spit.
The greedy Li-Fu heard that Aktanka smelled of fried food and came running again:
- Pay back the debt!
Aktanka cannot repay the debt. He took Lyfa and the bow and arrows and the bird from him. Left. Ainka cries:
- Oh-oh-oh! How are we going to live now? Aktanka tells her:
- Don’t cry, wife, let’s think better.
So Aktanka began to think. I thought all night. I almost used up all the tobacco while I was thinking. In the morning he says to his wife:
- Go get some resin ready.
Ainka went into the forest. I collected resin from fir and Christmas trees. I gained a lot. Melted and mixed.
Aktanka took a chumashka with resin. I went to a cliff where a tall spruce grew.
He climbed this tree, to the very top. I looked around. He sees birds flying. Aktanka began to climb down from that tree and began to smear the branches and trunk with resin. He comes down and smears, comes down and smears... He smeared the whole tree, then went home and went to bed.
In the morning I woke up my wife:
- Hey, wife, go collect some loot!
Aktanka's wife went to that tree. He sees that the whole tree is dotted with birds. At night, the birds sat on a tree to rest and stuck to it. No matter how much we flapped our wings, we couldn’t tear ourselves away. Ainka collected the game and took it home. I started frying the bird.
Li-Fu was sleeping and counting his profits in his sleep. Suddenly the smell of meat was heard from the fanza of Aktanka. He jumped up and ran. He shakes all over from greed, his hands tremble, his braid jumps on his back, his shoes fall off his feet, his robe rides up above his knees.
Li-Fu came running to Aktanka, pointing his finger at his thick book.
“Hey,” he shouts, “you don’t pay off your debt, but you eat meat!” Repay your debt!
“I can’t,” says Aktanka. - I can’t, Mr. Rich.
- Then give me the tackle!
“But I don’t have any gear,” Aktanka says. “You yourself took all the gear from me.”
Li-Fu put his hand into the Aktanka cauldron and pulled out the duck. When he saw the bird, he widened his eyes, stomped his feet, blushed with anger, and shouted in a voice that was not his own:
- Did this one fly into your cauldron itself?
“I caught it without gear,” Aktanka answers. “You just need to smear the tree with resin.” The birds will sit on that tree and stick to you, and then pick them up with your bare hands and throw them into the cauldron.
Li-Fu was delighted. “Here,” he thinks, “good! Now I’ll catch all the geese, all the ducks! There will be good trade! But now I won’t give Aktanka any flour, cereals, or lard!”
The rich man ran home. He drove his wife into the forest and ordered her to collect resin. The rich man's wife collected a whole barrel of resin. The two of us barely dragged that barrel up to the mountain, where the tall trees grew.
- Li-Fu collected resin into a copper cauldron and climbed a tree. He climbs and smears... He climbs and smears...
By the time I got to the top, I coated the entire tree.
I coated it thickly so that more birds would stick.
His wife shouts to him from below:
- Hey, get off, Li-Fu! Otherwise you will scare all the birds. You see - a whole school of geese is flying! Yes, they are fat, fat, lard drips from them into the river!
The merchant began to get down. And the tree is sticky. The lower, the stronger the resin...
Li-Fu stuck to a tree. And his arms, and his legs, and his embroidered robe stuck to him.
His wife hurries:
- Get down, Li-Fu! Those geese are already close...
And Li-Fu can’t move either up or down. He says to his wife:
- I can’t get down! Cut the tree! Birds will also perch on fallen things.
The rich man's wife grabbed an ax and began to chop down the tree. He waves with all his strength - only chips fly in different directions.
And Li-Fu shouts:
- Hurry, hurry! Otherwise the geese will fly by. The wife cut down the tree. It fell. hit about
land. The greedy Li-Fu was killed. One of the branches bounced off and hit the rich man's wife in the forehead. She fell into a barrel of resin.
The barrel overturned, rolled and fell into the river along with the wife of the stupid and greedy Li-Fu. But we don’t feel sorry for her - she was no better than her greedy husband either!
And Aktanka went to the Li-Fu fanza, took all his gear: a bow, a crossbow, and a snare. He began to live, began to hunt, and caught fish.
And no one took his prey anymore.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru