In one area there lived two brothers: one was rich and the other was poor. The rich man had a large, good house, but the poor man had only a small, dilapidated hut.
One day a gray-haired old man was walking along the road. He decided to visit his rich brother and ask for an overnight stay: surely such a rich man would not refuse a beggar. I knocked. The owner himself opened the door and angrily asked:
- What do you need?
“Let me spend the night with you,” the beggar asks. And the rich man will shout:
- Get out quickly! If I start letting all kinds of beggars stay overnight, then soon I’ll be walking around the world myself!
The beggar approached the poor man's hut and knocked. The hostess opened the door for him, greeted him warmly, sat him down at the table, set the potatoes to boil, and milked the goat herself. After dinner, the hostess called her husband aside and said:
“Hubby, let’s go to sleep on the floor and give up the bed to the guest.”
The husband agreed. So they did.
As soon as the sun rose, the guest got up and got ready to go. And in parting he says:
- Tell me three wishes and they will come true.
The poor man and his wife wished themselves health, plenty of bread and, if possible, a new hut instead of the old one. They received what they asked for, and the beggar left.
The next morning the rich brother's wife came to the window and saw: the poor brother had a new hut! She woke up her husband and said:
“No one else could do this, only yesterday’s beggar.”
The husband harnessed the horse and went to catch up with the beggar. The rich man caught up with the beggar and asked:
- Let me say three wishes too!
“Go home,” says the beggar. - Whatever you wish will come true!
The rich man turned home, drove and thought about what he could wish for. And then the horse balked and didn’t move. The rich man got angry and shouted in his heart:
- May you die, you old nag!
The horse fell and died immediately. So the first wish came true.
So that he did not have to buy a new saddle, the rich man put it on his shoulders and went home. It’s hard for him to carry the saddle, but his wife is probably happy at home. And the rich man became so annoyed that he just said:
- Let the saddle lie at home, and the wife sit on it!
The husband came home, and his wife greeted him with a cry:
- What have you done?!
The husband doesn’t know what to do now. He only has one wish left. If he wants wealth, then his wife will sit on the saddle all her life.
- You're a fool, you're a fool! - the wife screams. - Why do I need wealth if I can’t use it and I’ll sit on the saddle all my life!
There is nothing to do, the husband wished that his wife would get out of the saddle.
So the rich man lost his horse, got tired while walking home, and quarreled with his wife, but the poor man lived happily ever after in a new hut and did not know grief.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru