In ancient times there lived a husband and wife. They didn’t have children for a long time, and finally they got it – their son was born. Everything would be fine, but the boy was strange from birth: he never cried, never laughed, never moved his arm or leg, but only knew how to sleep day and night. He was already two years old, but he rarely woke up, rarely opened his eyes. And his parents gave him the name Lezheboka.
The boy grew up, but his character did not change. All he needed was to lie down in a quiet corner and sleep. He was too lazy to even eat. If he had not been fed and spoon-fed, he would not have eaten at all. Time passed, and the boy turned into an adult guy, for whom it was time to think about marriage. In the end, father and mother became unbearable to tolerate such a lazy person in their house. “We need to marry him, let him live in his own home with his wife!” - they decided and said to their son:
“It’s time for you, son, to get married and live your own home.”
Lazyboka was not at all surprised, not at all upset, but, on the contrary, even delighted. And the fact was that one evening he inadvertently overheard a conversation between a rich neighbor and his only daughter, the beautiful Kao Gur. The neighbor was sitting by the fireplace weaving a basket. He threw chaff onto the fireplace and loudly called out to his daughter:
“Come here, my only child, I need to talk to you about an important matter.”
-What do you want to talk about, father? - the beauty responded.
- About you, daughter. I think it's time for you to find a groom. You just have to do it wisely. After all, the most important thing is that the groom is not a quitter. We’ll find you a hard-working, skillful guy, someone who will be able to plow the field thoroughly and will not return from the hunt empty-handed. I’ve become weak, I’m like an old tree stump, you and I need support.
- How do I know which guy is a skilled plowman and a good hunter? – the girl asked.
The father thought about it and answered:
“A good hunter will hit his game in the eye with an arrow.” A skilled plowman holds the hoe not at the very end of the handle, but closer to the middle. Only lazy people grab a hoe by the end of the handle...
I listened to Slothboy and wound it in my head... In the morning he called the unmarried village guys and asked them to help him lay out a mountain field. The beautiful Khao Gur took water from a mountain river that flowed nearby and saw who was working. She looks: only one Lazybok holds the hoe not by the end of the handle, but by the middle, which is why he has to bow his head low. The beauty brought water home and hurried to tell her father about what she had seen.
And Lazyboka turned out to be a good guy: he noticed that the beautiful Kao Gur was looking at him, got up at dawn, caught a wild pigeon and stuck an arrow right into its eye. Then he walked past the neighbor’s house, and he himself was holding a dove with an arrow in its eye in plain sight. The girl, of course, immediately told her father about this. Then the girl’s father decided that Lazyboka was indeed a suitable match for his daughter, and agreed to take him as a son-in-law.
Without hesitation, Lazyboka moved to a neighbor's house.
The wedding took place for three days, and for all three days Slothboy only knew that he ate and slept, and after the wedding he slept again. Days passed, and Lazyboka still couldn’t get enough sleep. It was time to prepare the field for sowing, but Lazyboka did not even think of picking up a hoe. He didn't go hunting either. The young wife had to cultivate the mountain field herself, and the old and weak father helped her as best he could.
But one day a misfortune happened: the green shoots of rice were trampled by a wild elephant that got into the habit of going to a mountain field. The old father complained to his daughter:
“I can’t control an elephant, my daughter.” I'm no more useful here than an old tree stump.
Kao Gur came home and reproached her husband and said:
“If you don’t want to work in the field, then at least help us get rid of the wild elephant.” Otherwise, we will be left without a harvest at all.
The couch potato didn't even bat an eyelid, he just muttered in his sleep:
“Okay, but first you get me an iron hook, a crossbow and a thicker rope.” When everything is ready, wake me up.
Seven days later, Kao Gur prepared an iron hook, a crossbow and a thick rope. As soon as it began to get dark, she pushed her husband away, and they went together to the mountain field. And there Lazyboka says to his wife, yawning and stretching:
“Perhaps, first I’ll take a short nap in the hut, and you sit and watch.”
Before the wife had time to blink an eye, her husband was already snoring at the top of his lungs, and she had to sit down and watch. But she only sat there for a short time. Suddenly I heard stomping, and an elephant appeared in the distance. Kao Gur began to shake her husband:
- Get up, get up! The elephant is coming, now it will begin to trample our crops!
But Lazyboka didn’t even turn an ear. Kao Gur became very angry, grabbed the crossbow, adjusted the arrow and released it. The arrow hit the elephant right in the eye and killed him outright. Satisfied, Kao Gur lay down near the hut, and soon fell asleep. Having made sure that his wife was fast asleep, Lazyboka got up, tied the elephant’s leg with a thick rope to a century-old tree, and he climbed into the hut and lay down to rest.
In the morning he pretended to be very angry.
“Who dared to kill the elephant that I caught alive and tied to a tree?” - he shouted.
“It was I who killed him,” Kao Gur answered calmly, “but the elephant was not tied.” And when did you manage to tie it?
But Lazyboka stubbornly insisted. When he and his wife returned home, the first thing he did was complain to his father-in-law about his wife:
“I caught an elephant alive, and she killed him, tied to a century-old tree, with a crossbow!” I wanted to bring an elephant to the village in the morning, but she waited until I fell asleep and killed the elephant! This is what a careless wife I got!
Pretending to be terribly offended, Lazyboka returned to his parents’ house. And in parting he said that he would not return to his wife until his father-in-law gave his parents a good buffalo and selected rice.
The father-in-law had to make a concession, he gave both a buffalo and rice, then Sloth returned to his house.
Time passed, and Kao Gur again became angry with her slacker husband.
“If you don’t want to work in the field,” she said, “then at least go hunting and shoot a deer!”
But Lazyboka didn’t even move. He responded only when his wife repeated her request for the fourth time.
“Okay, but first fry the chicken, boil the eggs and sticky rice,” he said.
The next day, Kao Gur got up just before dawn and prepared everything her husband asked for, but he didn’t even think about getting up. She forced her husband aside, and he went hunting, taking a crossbow, a thick rope and food in a backpack basket. Lazybok found a spreading tree near a mountain river and got to work. Three days later, he built a flooring on the tree, with a hut on it, where he could hide from the weather and from forest animals. It was there that Lazyboka lay down and began to snore. And he forgot to think about hunting.
Early in the morning a tiger went to a mountain river. The tiger really wanted to eat the fish. He climbed onto a snag and started slapping the water with his paw. Oh, and the cormorant, which was used to fishing right next to that very snag, didn’t like it! “Now I’ll teach you a lesson, stupid tiger, so that you won’t invade my domain!” - thought the cormorant, contrived and painfully hit the tiger on the back of the neck with its beak. The tiger got angry, became angry, and was about to punish the impudent bird. He rushed after the cormorant, but splashed - and plopped into the water! The poor fellow almost choked. He wanted to get out of the water, but that was not the case - he was tightly entangled in the roots, they would not let him ashore. When the forest birds saw this, they were amazed: truly, an unprecedented spectacle! They began to squeal, became noisy, and woke up Sloth. He looked down and saw a tiger floundering in a mountain river. Slothboy grabbed a thick rope, climbed down from the tree, tied the tiger tightly to a snag, and went home.
- Well, where is your prey? - his wife greeted Sloth. “Have you shot at least one animal?”
- No, I didn’t shoot him, - | he says, “but I managed to catch the beast alive.”
-What kind of animal did you catch alive?
- Which one? I don't know, probably a wild cat. I tied him to a snag, let him wait for me.
He said and fell asleep himself. Kao Gur went with her fellow villagers to see who it was that Lazyboka had tied to a snag. They reached the bank of a mountain river and couldn’t believe their eyes: it turns out that Lazybok had caught a tiger! From that day on, everyone in the village began to treat Lezheboka with great respect.
Time passed, and one day a whole herd of rhinoceroses appeared in the forest. The villagers did not know how to hunt such powerful animals. They went to Lazheboki’s house, called and shouted for a long time, but he was sleeping so soundly that he didn’t hear a thing. Then the hunters came to him.
- Get up, get up! How ashamed are you to sleep at such a late hour! - they exclaimed.
But Lazyboka snores as if nothing had happened. In the end, the hunters pulled him out of bed. Half asleep, he took a crossbow and reluctantly went into the forest. It must be said that before that time Slothless had never seen a rhinoceros, therefore, as soon as a rhinoceros appeared from behind the trees, he stared at it - he became very curious - and then slowly walked towards it. The rhinoceros, without thinking twice, hooked Slothside with its horn and threw it onto its back. Then the hunters raised such a cry that the rhinoceros ran away in fright. And Lazybok sits on his back. Hunters with swords in their hands overtook the rhinoceros and killed it. Lazyboka was terribly upset.
– Who asked you to kill the rhinoceros? - he scolded the hunters. - I caught him alive, and you ruined the whole thing.
Lezheboka quarreled with the entire village. To make amends for their guilt and appease Lyzheboka, his fellow villagers gave him three buffaloes. Only after that Sloth stopped sulking at them.
One day there was a bad harvest, and then, unfortunately, a bloodthirsty tiger entered the neighboring village. He carried bulls, pigs, and, on occasion, did not disdain chickens. The residents of that village had long heard about Lazheboka’s hunting skills, and so they came to him and tearfully asked him to help them get rid of the scourge.
“Okay, I’ll help you catch the tiger, and at the same time the tigress and her cubs,” agreed the cunning man. “But only on one condition: let every resident of the village give me a rich gift!”
Residents of the neighboring village were so hot that they expressed their readiness to fulfill any desire of Lazheboka. He ordered them to return home and prepare a good meal: chicken, meat, fish. As soon as everything is ready, he will come. And in fact, Slothboka soon appeared in the neighboring village and first of all attacked the food. He ate to his fill and went for a walk and took the rope with him. He sees a family of tigers frolicking at the edge of the forest. Father Tiger approached Lazyboka and asked with caution:
“Aren’t you the same person whom the people of the village called to catch me?”
- Where did you get this from, venerable tiger? I was just going to cut some Indian cane. Do you see how strong ropes it makes?
- Hmm... Why do you need ropes?
- How - why? Tie your wife to a tree. I listen to you, venerable tiger, and am amazed: do you really not understand anything?
The tiger was extremely surprised: ......
“I really don’t understand why you needed to tie your wife to a tree?”
“Yes, now I see that you, venerable tiger, still don’t know anything.” “I’ll explain now,” says Lezheboka. “The fact is that the earth will soon turn over, and everyone who is not tied down will fly upside down.”
The tiger did not immediately understand what this man was talking about, and Lazyboka had to patiently repeat everything from the beginning several times. When it finally dawned on the tiger, he was terribly frightened and began to beg Slothboy to tie the cubs, the tigress, and himself tightly to the trees, in case the earth suddenly turned over.
The couch potato did not hesitate, tied the tiger and his family to a thicker tree and stomped back to the village.
People came and looked - and indeed Slothboy caught the entire tiger family! They were delighted and presented him with rich gifts. That's how lazy Lazheboka is!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru