There lived one woman. Her husband died early, and three sons were left orphans. With pain in her heart, the woman raised her children and obtained bread for them with the help of a spindle and a needle.
And when the sons grew up, the last hair on the mother’s head turned white. One day an old mother said to her sons:
“Now you have become adults and matured, but I have grown so old that my weak hands can no longer spin threads, my clouded eyes no longer see the eye of a needle.” Go to work and earn your own bread!
The eldest son heard his mother’s words and said:
- Dear mother, I am healthy in body and have strong arms. I will go to work and bring home everything I earn.
The old woman baked some cakes, wrapped them in a scarf and saw her son off. The young man walked and walked and came to a certain city. He found the bai's house and knocked on the gate. The Bai came out, saw the young man and asked:
- What do you want?
- I'm a worker.
— Do you know how to plow with oxen?
“I can,” answered the young man.
Bai led him into the courtyard and said:
- Okay, I’ll hire you as a worker, but only on one condition. If you accept it, I will pay you well for your work, but if you don’t accept it, then go your way.
“Say your condition,” said the worker.
“Everything I command,” said the Bai, “you must carry out and not be angry with me.” And if you get angry, I'll cut off your ears. And vice versa, if I get angry with you for something, you will cut off my ears.
The young man agreed to this condition. He slept through the night, and early at dawn the bai woke him up from a sweet dream, gave him a flatbread and said:
- Get up and go to work!
The young man stood up, on the orders of the bai, loaded the donkey with wheat, put a yoke with a plow on the oxen, and went to the field. Having escorted him to the gate, the bai said:
“Today you will sow all this wheat, then you will chop and load as much firewood on the donkey as will fit, and bring it home.”
Having said “okay”, the young man went to the field. He was strong, strong and hard-working. He plowed a lot of land and sowed it with wheat. Having climbed the mountain, he felled a hawthorn tree, chopped it up, loaded it on a donkey and returned to the owner’s house. Coming out to meet him, the bai asked:
- Well, aren’t you tired, aren’t you angry with me?
The young man, of course, was tired from the hard day’s work, but remembering the condition of the bai, he said:
- No, I'm not tired and I'm not angry.
The next day, the Bai woke up the worker even earlier at dawn and repeated the order of the previous day. Without having time to rest, the next day the worker completed an impossible task with difficulty and returned home only at nightfall.
This went on for several days. For the whole long day, the bai gave the worker only one flatbread. The hard work exhausted and weakened the young man.
One day he plowed and sowed until late and was unable to bring firewood to the owner. Upset and saddened, he returned to the owner's house. Coming out to meet him and seeing that the young man had not brought firewood, the bai calmly asked:
“Since you have not completed my task, tomorrow I will wake you up even earlier and will not give you any flatbread.” Seeing how the unfortunate young man drooped, the bai asked again: “Perhaps you are offended and angry?”
The young man’s cup of patience was full, he could no longer tolerate such bullying and shouted:
- Of course, I’m offended and angry! How long can we endure such torment! You turn out to be very cruel!
Bai jumped up to him, immediately cut off his ears and kicked him out of the house. The mother saw her son with his ears cut off and screamed with groans and sobs:
- What's wrong with you, son? Who could treat you so cruelly? “The son told everything that happened to him.
“You were probably lazy, and that’s why they did this to you!” — said the middle son. “So I’ll go to work instead of you, fulfill the condition of the bai and receive a large payment from him!”
And the old woman’s middle son went to the bai. He walked up to his house and knocked on the gate. Bai came out and asked:
- What do you want?
- I came to work for you instead of my older brother!
Bai set the same condition for him. The young man agreed.
Every day, having loaded the donkey with wheat and put a yoke with a plow on the oxen, the worker went to the field, plowed the land, sowed the wheat, and returned home in the evening with a full load of firewood. This went on for several days. Finally, one day the worker was so tired that he could not collect firewood and drove the donkey home without any luggage.
“Why didn’t you bring firewood?” the bai immediately asked.
“I didn’t have time and I was tired, I didn’t have the strength to collect firewood.”
Bai began to gently scold him and say that it turns out he was angry and did not want to carry out his orders?!
The middle brother's patience ran out, and he couldn't stand it, he shouted angrily:
- How can I not be angry with you! You are mocking me, you cruel man!
Bai immediately jumped up to him and cut off both ears.
The mutilated young man returned home crying. And the mother, when she saw the cut off ears of her middle son, began to sob and lament:
- O cruel bay, let your house burn! May you never see a happy day!
The youngest son of the old woman, Kal, having learned about all this, said:
- Brothers, in my opinion, you could not act smarter than the bai and therefore suffered. Let me go work for him! Look what happens!
Although his brothers and mother dissuaded him from going to work for the bai, fearing that he would suffer the same fate, Kal did not listen and left. Approaching the bai's house, he knocked on the gate. Bai came out and asked:
- Kal, what do you need from me?
“My brothers couldn’t work for you.” I want to work for you instead of them!
Bai brought Kal into the house and told him about his condition. Kal agreed with him and began to work. On the very first morning, the bai woke up the new worker early at dawn and sent him to work in the field.
Arriving with wheat at the field, Kal poured it into a hole, and he calmly went to sleep in the shade of a tree. In the evening he broke the yoke, the plow and the team of oxen, put them on the donkey and, returning home, called the owner:
- Here's some firewood, take it! - he said to the boy.
- Oh, dear Kal, where did you find such dry firewood?
“I broke the yoke, plow and harness, put them on a donkey and brought them to you.”
Bai was amazed at such self-will of the worker, and Kal at that time asked him:
- Master, maybe you are angry with me? Having difficulty restraining his anger, the bai replied:
- No, I'm not angry.
“If you’re not angry, prepare a pair of oxen and a new team by morning.”
Bai again sent the worker to the field early at dawn. And this time Kal poured the grain into the hole and went to bed. In the evening he chopped up the yoke and harness, loaded everything onto the donkey and returned home. But this time the bai did not say anything to him.
This went on for a whole month, and the Bai did not show any displeasure. And Kal thought: “What should I do?” Then he took and killed one ox, put its meat in a bag of wheat and loaded it on a donkey. Again he broke the yoke and harness, put it all on top of the bag and returned home.
Bai noticed everything, but calmly asked the worker:
-Where is the second ox?
“I killed him and put the meat in a bag,” the worker responded vividly. And looking at the pale owner, he asked: “Are you angry?”
Gritting his teeth, the bai said this time: “No, I’m not angry!”
Now Kal poured the bai grain into the pit every day, broke the yoke and harness, and then killed the second ox. Bai saw that his farm was falling apart and said to his wife:
- This Kal destroyed all our property. I'm afraid that my patience will run out. If I get angry, he will immediately cut off my ears! “And he told his wife that there was only one way to get rid of Kal.”
Late in the evening, the bai and his wife collected the most valuable things and put them in a chest. They decided to go to bed and early in the morning run away somewhere far away.
The sharp-sighted Kal learned of their intention. When the owners fell asleep, he took out all the contents of the chest and hid it in one place. He himself climbed into the chest and fell asleep in it.
Bai and his wife woke up early in the morning, took the prepared chest and, stealthily, began to run. When midday came, the tired husband and wife decided to rest by the stream. Bai turned to his wife and said:
— Boil some tea and prepare something to eat.
“If Kal had been with us, he would have brought us firewood,” said the wife. Hearing these words, Kal stuck his head out of the chest and said:
- I'm here, ready to serve!
Seeing Kal in the chest, the bai became furious and shouted at the top of his lungs:
- Oh, damn you, Kal! You destroyed all my wheat, killed my oxen, broke a whole mountain of harness, and now you’ve also robbed our chest of valuable goods?!
- Dear master, I see you are angry? - asked Kal. Bai could not restrain himself and shouted even louder:
“If after all this I’m not angry, then who else would be angry?”
- Now you’ve lost too! - Kal shouted joyfully, taking a knife from his bosom. He cut off the bai's ears and left him with his wife.
Kal immediately returned to the bai’s house, collected the things hidden from the chest along with the remaining goods and went to his home.
His old mother and overjoyed brothers could not believe their eyes when they saw that Kal had returned from the battle safe and sound, and had even brought a reward for his work.
So the quick-witted Kal outwitted the cruel bai and took revenge on him for his brothers.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru