Once a certain bond went out to sea to fish and caught a merman. Bond tried to talk to him in different ways, but the merman was silent and did not answer anything, only asked Bond to let him go back. But Bond didn't want that.
Then the bond went to the shore and the merman was with him. And then his wife runs up to him and greets him affectionately; Bond liked it. Then the merman laughed.
Then his dog runs up to the bond and begins to wag its tail and caress, but the bond hits the dog. Then the merman laughed a second time.
After this, the bond goes to his farm, but on the way he trips over a bump and hurts himself. Bond gets angry and stomps on the bump, beside himself with rage. Then the merman laughed for the third time.
Every time the merman laughed, the bond asked him why he was laughing, but the merman remained silent and did not answer anything.
Bond kept the merman for a whole year, but never got a word out of him. But when twice as much time had passed since the day the bond caught the waterman, he asked to be taken to the sea and released back. Bond promised that he would do it if he told him why he laughed three times when he was driving him to his home. The merman said that he would not do this until the bond took him out to sea to the place where he caught him and released him.
Then the bond does just that: he takes the merman to the very sandbank where he caught him. And when they get there, the merman says:
“The first time I laughed was because your wife greeted you so kindly, because she did it falsely and without love, and she is cheating on you.” The second time I laughed because you beat your dog, who greeted you faithfully and sincerely. The third time I laughed because you trampled on the mound, but there was money hidden under it, and you never found out.
Then the merman dived into the water, and the bond dug up a mound, found a lot of goods there and became rich.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru