Once upon a time there lived a rich man and a poor man in the same village next door. The poor man did not get out of debt with his rich neighbor and often, for lack of money, paid off by working off his debt in the rich man’s field.
How many times did they go together to plow the rich man’s field? They harnessed the horses to the plow and got to work. The poor man, feeling sorry for his skinny horse, increasingly whipped the rich man's fat horse. He noticed this, got angry and said:
- Why are you only chasing my horse, but taking care of yours? - and in retaliation, he hit the poor man’s horse on the head with all his might with a whip.
The poor horse swayed and could barely stay on its feet. I had to unharness it and take it out of the furrow. Not even an hour had passed before she died.
The poor man began to sunbathe and began to sweat. But how can you help me? He took the skin off his horse, dried it in the sun, put it in a bag and went wherever his eyes led him.
He walked and walked and came to the forest. And the time was already late, night had come, and it was time to think about spending the night. I looked closer - at . The house stands on the edge of the forest. The poor man approached the house, but before asking to stay for the night, he decided to see what was going on in that house. He lay down nearby in the bushes and began to observe.
A young woman, probably the mistress of the house, was sitting at the table with an equally young man and treating him to all sorts of wines and dishes. Judging by the way the hostess behaved, how quickly she ran from the table to the stove and from the stove to the table, it did not look like she was treating her husband.
And so it turned out. Soon the owner arrived at the house. Noticing him through the window, the hostess quickly put the wine and food into the stove, and hid the guest in the chest.
After waiting until the owner entered the house and washed himself from the road, the poor man went to the window and asked loudly:
—Won't you let me spend the night?
“Come in and spend the night, there’s enough room,” the owner answered.
Without parting with his bag, the poor man entered the house. He was offered a place at the table. The poor man did not refuse, he sat down and put the bag at his feet under the table.
The owner asked who he was, where he was from and where he was going. The poor man, answering the owner’s questions, pressed his foot on the bag. The dry horse hide rustled and creaked. The owner heard this creak and asked:
-What is that creaking there?
“And this is my sorcerer,” answered the poor man.
- And what can he conjure?
- Anything.
“I’m thirsty and hungry now.” Let him conjure a spell so that all sorts of wines and dishes appear.
The poor man still pressed his foot on the bag. The skin rustled and creaked again.
“It’s ready,” says the poor man. “I cast a spell.”
- Where are the wine and food?
- In the oven.
The owner goes to the stove, looks into it - the stove is full of all sorts of wines and dishes. All this was immediately put on the table, and the feast began.
We drank and ate, and the owner of the house asks again:
- What else can your sorcerer conjure?
“Yes, even the devil,” answered the poor man.
“Well, this is interesting,” the owner said cheerfully. “Give the devil here.”
The poor man stepped on the bag and the bag creaked.
- Ready!
-Where is the devil?
- And in that chest over there. Hurry up, otherwise the devil will run away.
The owner ran to the chest that stood in the far corner, opened it - and in fact, someone was rummaging around in it. In surprise, the owner even screamed and slammed the lid of the chest. And returning to the table, he asked:
-Will you sell me your sorcerer?
“Well, if you liked it so much, why not sell it,” said the poor man.
- How much are you asking? ,
- Neither more nor less - three buckets of money.
- The price is right.
The owner of the house gave the poor man three thousand rubles of money. The next morning, getting ready to leave, the poor man said:
- But the devil is still sitting in the chest. It’s not good to leave all kinds of evil spirits in the house, I’ll take it with me so that no sin happens.
The owner agreed and happily gave the chest to the poor man. He put it in a bag, put it on his back and walked on.
He walked and walked and came to the river. He threw the chest from his shoulders and said loudly:
“This chest tormented me.” And why would I carry such a weight, I’ll take it and throw it into the river.
The man in the chest got scared and shouted:
- Don't leave me, have mercy. Whatever you ask, I’ll give it all, just let it out of the chest.
The poor man demanded a ladle of money. He readily agreed. The poor man let him out of the chest, but broke the chest itself and threw it into the river.
After this, our poor man returned to his village and the first thing he did was send his son to the rich man to get some scales.
After weighing the money, he sent the scales back. While receiving the scales, a wealthy neighbor noticed that a coin was stuck to the scales. This puzzled him. “What a miracle,” he thought. “Wasn’t it my poor neighbor who was weighing money? But where will he get the money if the last horse died? I’ll go to him myself and find out.”
He came to the poor man and said:
- It looks like you got rich, neighbor, how did you do it?
“I sold the horse skin very profitably.”
— Aren’t there any buyers there yet? - Greed spoke in the rich man.
- No matter how hard it is to be found, it will be found.
The rich man hurried home, killed several of his horses and went to the city to sell their skins.
Having reached the market, he began to shout loudly:
- Who wants horse skins?
There are a lot of people at the market. There were also those who needed horse skins. They surrounded the seller and began asking about the price. The rich man asked for three buckets of money for each skin. Someone was surprised at such a fabulous price, and someone shouted:
- He's gone crazy! Hold him, call the guards, otherwise there’s no telling what he might do.
The rich man, sensing evil, threw the skins and ran away from the market. Only now did he realize that his neighbor had left him a fool. And he returned home with a firm decision to take revenge on the poor man at all costs. I thought and thought about how to take revenge, and came up with: “I’ll go to him at night and kill him!”
The poor man's grandmother died that day. At night, he put the deceased on his bed, and he lay down in another place.
At midnight, the rich man crept up to his neighbor's house, opened the window and brought an ax down on the dead woman's head, being sure that he was killing his neighbor.
In the morning, the poor man wakes up and sees: the head of his dead grandmother is cut in two. “What miracles,” the poor man thinks. “It turns out that if I had slept on my bed, I would no longer be in this world.” This, of course, is the work of my rich chabra, he was probably very angry with me.”
The poor man begged a horse from his neighbors, put the deceased woman on a cart, dressed her as if she were alive, and left the village.
In the evening I went to spend the night with a guy I knew.
I went to his house, asked for a drink, then said:
— My grandmother stayed on the cart. Bring her some water too.
The owner’s daughter went out into the yard, walked up to the cart and handed the grandmother a ladle of water:
- Drink.
She held it and held the ladle, but grandma wouldn’t take it. “Look, she’s so picky, sometimes she asks, sometimes she doesn’t drink,” thought the owner’s daughter, and out of frustration she hit the old woman on the head with that ladle and ran back to the hut.
And as soon as she came to the hut, the poor man immediately left the hut and shouted to the whole yard:
- What did you do to my grandmother?
Everyone ran out of the hut and looked - and indeed the old woman was lying on her back with a split skull.
“It’s not otherwise that your daughter split her head,” the poor man continues to shout.
The owners got scared and began to beg the poor man:
- For Christ's sake, don't tell anyone. Whatever you ask, we will give everything, just don’t ruin it.
The poor man demanded three buckets of money. The owners readily agreed, and even took it upon themselves to bury the deceased.
The poor man returned home and again sent his son to the rich neighbor for scales. The rich man did not give the scales, but appeared himself. Of course: after all, he was sure that he had killed his neighbor, and he, as if nothing had happened, asked for the scales again!
He comes to the poor man, sees him alive and healthy and does not believe his eyes.
- Why do you need scales? - he asks. “Or did you get rich again?”
“Yes, at night someone killed my grandmother, I took her away, sold her and received three buckets of money,” the poor man answers.
The rich man hurried home and, although he felt very sorry for his grandmother, and greed clouded his mind, he finished her off. And the next morning I took him to the city to the market.
He arrived and started shouting:
- To whom, to whom should I sell my dead grandmother?
Just like the first time, people surrounded him, and someone said:
“That crazy guy has arrived again.” He should have been put in prison long ago, where he should be, otherwise he would be in trouble.
Seeing this turn of events, the rich man got scared and took off running. He returned home even more angry at his lucky neighbor. “We need to do something with him,” he says to himself. “How many times has he left me a fool!” No, he must pay for this. I'll put him in a bag and drown him in the river. Let’s see how he’ll play jokes on me then!”
It turns out it's done. The rich man takes a large bag, goes to his neighbor, contrively grabs it and squeezes it into the bag. Now it’s just a small task: drag it to the river and throw it into deep water.
The road to the river passed by the church. Loud singing came from the open door. The rich man was a pious man and, leaving the bag on the porch, went into God's temple.
Meanwhile, the poor man sits in a sack and hears someone’s plaintive voice:
- Oh, it would be better for me to die than to endure poverty and torment!
- Who are you? - asked the poor man from the bag. - Do you really want to die?
- I'm a shepherd. And I would like to die even now, but death does not come.
- Well, if so, you have nothing to grieve. Take my place in the bag and you will die today.
The shepherd untied the bag, let the poor man out of it, and took his place.
The poor man took the shepherd's whip and drove the whole herd to his home.
The rich man came out of the church, took the bag, took it to the river and threw it into the water.
- Finally got rid of my neighbor! ——he sighed with relief and, satisfied, went home.
Approaches the house - what a new wonder? - a poor man stands at the open gate of his yard and drives a large herd there.
The rich man was speechless with surprise. And when the power of speech returned to him, he asked:
- What miracles! Where do you get so many cattle?
“From the bottom of the river,” the poor man answered without blinking an eye.
- Is there still such a herd left there? - again the ever-present greed and envy spoke to the rich man.
- As many as you like.
- I’ll go there too. I’m just afraid to jump myself, do me a favor, put me in a bag and throw me into the water.
“Okay, I’ll serve as a neighbor,” the poor man answered his request.
They came to the river, the rich man climbed into the bag, and the poor man tied it tightly and dragged it to the cliff.
“Tie a stone to the bag so that I can quickly get to the bottom of the herds,” the rich man finally asked.
The poor man willingly fulfilled this request: he tied a heavy stone and threw the bag into the deepest place. The bubbles just started!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru