The merry fellow Kuoi annoyed the senior officials so much with his pranks that they could not stand the insult, became seriously angry and ordered to seize the sly man. The elders tried and judged for a long time and decided to drown their offender in the river, and so that others would be discouraged, they herded the people to the place of execution.
And so, on the orders of the elders, the servants wove a huge basket, put stones in it, and put Kuoy there, bound. In this form, his servants brought him to the river bank, where people had already gathered.
The cheerful Kuoi sits in a basket and chuckles, and people crowd around, feeling sorry for their pet, but they can’t help him in any way.
Meanwhile, the elders are in no hurry to execute - they really want to scare the people and enjoy the dying fear of the rogue.
And suddenly Kuoi’s loud laughter is heard from the basket, everyone is amazed, they don’t understand anything.
- What's wrong with you, Quoi? - they ask him. “How can you laugh before you die?”
“I laugh at the stupid elders,” the merry fellow answers from the basket. “They were planning to execute me, but apparently they forgot about the proverb: “The stones remain, the oranges float away.” So don't worry, I'll be with you soon, fellow villagers!
People understood Kuoy’s trick and began to shout loudly:
- The stones remain, the oranges float away! The stones remain, the oranges float away!
The elders heard these words, consulted among themselves and ordered the servants to immediately pour oranges into the basket instead of stones. Then the servants swung the basket and threw it into the river, the basket immediately disappeared under the water. The elders decided that Kuoy had drowned and went home, satisfied. The villagers also left the shore; they returned gloomily to their homes, but each had a glimmer of hope in their souls that their favorite would be able to deceive the elders this time.
Meanwhile, the basket dived into the water, and then surfaced and rushed downstream. Kuoi sits tied up in a basket, unable to move or land on the shore. He was carried along by the current for a long time, until the river began to narrow and the basket washed up on the bank, where the boys were grazing buffaloes.
- Hey guys! - Kuoi shouts to them from the basket. “Would you like to eat some oranges? I have plenty of oranges here.” Pull the basket ashore.
The boys swam to the basket and pulled it ashore. This is how Kuoi escaped certain death.
He treated the children to oranges, put the remaining fruits in a basket, threw it over his shoulder and went to the nearest village. Kuoi knocked on the house of the foreman and said:
“Reverend sir, my master sends you this basket of oranges as a gift and asks you to let your best buffalo go with his buffaloes for a few days.”
The foreman did not suspect anything, accepted the oranges as a gift and agreed to give away his best buffalo for a few days.
Kuoi returned to his village secretly, changed into his best dress, sat astride a buffalo and rode straight to the house of the chief official foreman.
When Sergeant Major saw Kuoya riding a black buffalo, he swallowed his tongue in surprise and could not utter a word for a long time.
- Kuoi, is that you? - he finally asked in a weak voice. “And I thought that the fish were already eating you up... How did you manage to return?” And what kind of buffalo do you have?
Kuoi laughed cheerfully:
- Oh, what a fool I was! If I had remained silent then, my basket of stones would have remained, and then I would have become rich. Otherwise, for the oranges they only gave me one buffalo!
The chief foreman heard about such a miracle and began to ask Kuoy to tell him everything in detail from beginning to the very end.
“When the venerable senior officials ordered me to be thrown into the river in a basket of oranges, I decided that my death had come—and I swallowed some water and fell into oblivion, and then I woke up and looked: I was sitting in the palace of the water king. And the water king asks me where I am taking the oranges. And I answer him that I am taking them as a gift to the water king from the most respectable senior officials. The water king thanked me for a long time, gave me a wonderful treat, gave me a new dress, and ordered you to take this buffalo as a gift. I sat astride a buffalo, and it carried me to the shore. And the water king also asked me to tell you, the venerable elders, that he has a lot of water down there, but few stones. Therefore, if you come to him in a basket with stones, then he will not be like a buffalo - he will not regret a herd of elephants as a gift.
When the chief official foreman heard this, he immediately decided to go to the water king himself. He ordered Kuoi and the people of the village to prepare a basket of stones. Out of greed, he ordered to put more stones so that there would be more elephants in the herd.
The chief foreman said goodbye to his wife and children, climbed into the basket and ordered it to be taken to the place from where Kuoy was thrown into the river. An official foreman is sitting in a basket, shouting at people, urging them not to hesitate.
Kuoy gave a sign to his fellow villagers, they unanimously swung the basket and threw it into the river with all their might. The basket fell into the river, and only circles began to flow through the water. This is how the evil and greedy official drowned.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru