Once upon a time there lived a poor man. No matter what craft he took up, nothing came of it. He couldn't even earn his own bread. Today it’s like that, and tomorrow it’s like that, the poor man realized that he was unlucky in life, and decided to find some simpleton and fool him. He filled a bag with moss, put a little wool on top and went to the market. On the way he met another poor man. This one also went to the market and carried a bag of ink nuts, covered with real hazelnuts on top. The poor people stopped and started talking:
- What are you carrying in the bag?
- Nuts. And you?
- And I am wool.
- Let's switch: you take the nuts and give me the wool. My mother will knit warm socks for me from it, otherwise I walk almost barefoot.
- I agree, why not change? Moreover, I have long wanted to try nuts. But wool is more expensive, and you must add something to me for it.
They began to bargain and each tried to fool the other. In the end, they decided: whoever sold the nuts would pay two pennies extra for the wool. But since he didn’t have any money, he asked for a deferment - they say, he will give these two pennies at home. But the second one preferred to wait: he knew that at home his deception would be revealed. Pleased with each other, they fraternized and exchanged bags. Each one went his own way with a sly grin, confident that he had deceived the other. However, upon returning home, both realized that they had been made fools.
You never know, much time passed, and the one who sold moss instead of wool went to look for his debtor in order to take two pennies from him. He found him in the house of a priest, to whom he had hired himself as a farm laborer.
- Brother, you deceived me.
- But you, brother, deceived me.
- Give me back at least the two pennies that you owe me.
- I will return, brother, I will return. An agreement is worth more than money, I don’t go back on my word. But what should I do when I don’t even have a penny to my name? You know what I'll tell you: there's a deep hole behind the house. The priest often goes down into it and fiddles there for a long time. He probably has money in the pit. Come in the evening and help me go down into the pit, if we find something there, we’ll divide it equally, and I’ll give you back two pennies.
That's what they agreed on. In the evening, when everyone had fallen asleep, the farmhand took a rope and a bag, and both cunning men went to the pit. The farmhand climbed into the bag, and his brother-in-law lowered him down. The farm laborer tinkered in the pit for a long time, but found nothing but grain.
“If I tell him that I didn’t find anything, he’ll leave me in the hole and leave. In the morning the priest will beat me like the last dog,” he thought, climbed into the bag, tied a rope and shouted:
- Take, brother, a bag full of money.
He drags the bag and thinks:
“Why on earth would I share this money with him? After all, he’s a liar! I’ll pull out the bag and leave it in the hole. The priest will pull it out in the morning.”
He put the bag on his back and ran out of the countryside. The dogs rushed after him, barking. He ran and ran, but was so tired that the bag slipped off his back and was almost dragging along the ground.
- Raise it higher, brother, otherwise the dogs have bitten me all over! — the farmhand’s voice came from the bag.
Barely catching his breath from fatigue, the second deceiver slammed the bag onto the ground, and his brother crawled out.
“So you wanted to deceive me again,” said the farmhand.
“So you deceived me too,” the other answered him.
They argued in the middle of the road which of them was the greater liar and deceiver. But the word is the word! — the farmhand promised to return the promised two pennies next time.
Some time passed. The farmhand got married and moved to live with his wife. One day he was sitting on the doorstep smoking a pipe. He looks and his brother is coming.
“Little wife,” he jumped up, “one person is coming here.” I owe him two pennies and promised to return them when he comes. I'll pretend to be dead, and you mourn me. He will think that I really died and that now he has no one to collect the debt from.
No sooner said than done: he lay down on his back, crossed his arms, his wife covered him with a sheet and began to sob, lament and tear out her hair.
My brother knocked on the door. A woman came out onto the threshold, all in tears.
- God help you, young woman! Does so-and-so live here?
- Oh, I'm miserable! He lies dead in the house!
- The kingdom of heaven to him! We were brothers with him. They worked together, traded together. Since such a misfortune has befallen him, I will accompany him on his last journey and throw a handful of earth on his grave.
Then the young woman said that the funeral would be late and it would be better for him not to wait, but to continue on his way.
“It’s okay, I’ll wait at least three days,” he disagreed.
The husband heard these words and quietly ordered his wife to go to the priest and tell him that her husband had died and that he should be taken to the cemetery chapel. Maybe then the brother will leave?
The young woman went to the priest. The priest came and brought several people with him. They laid the “dead man” on the ditch, carried him to the chapel and left him there to sing in the morning and bury him with honor. Everyone went home. And the brother said to the young woman:
- For so many years we shared bread and salt with him - I will stay near him.
That night, robbers robbed a rich house and took away a lot of goods, money and weapons. As they passed the chapel, they saw that it was glowing inside.
“Let’s enter the chapel and divide our spoils,” they decided.
My brother heard that people were entering the chapel in the middle of the night, and hid in the altar, realizing that this was not a clean matter. The robbers entered and began to divide the money, pouring it into caps, and clothing and weapons - as needed. The division went without controversy, only one saber remained. Everyone wanted to take it for themselves - it was very good. The robbers began to argue. Then one of them jumped up, grabbed a saber and exclaimed:
- Let's check if she is as good as we think. If I cut off this dead man’s head with one blow, that means I’m good!
And he headed towards the coffin. And the “dead man” will jump up and scream:
- Hey, dead people! Where are you?
“Here we are,” his brother responded from the altar. - We're all ready. Start off? Hearing this, the robbers dropped everything and ran without looking back. They ran and ran, finally stopping in the forest to catch their breath.
“Well, brothers,” said the ataman, “we wandered around the world, we knew no rest day or night, we besieged fortresses and palaces, fought bravely and not once did any of us waver.” And now they were afraid of the dead man. Will there be a brave man among us who dares to return to the chapel and see what is happening there?
“I won’t go,” said one.
“And I’m afraid,” said another.
“I’m ready to fight against ten living people, but I won’t mess with the dead,” answered the third.
In the end, there was one brave soul who agreed to go take a look. He returned to the cemetery, quietly crawled to the chapel window and listened.
At this time, the two brothers-in-arms shared the goods looted by the robbers. They argued over two pennies and almost came to blows. And the robber sits and listens to their argument.
- And my two pennies? Give me two pennies!
The debtor looked around and saw the robber’s cap in the window. He quickly reached out his hand, grabbed the cap and threw it on the floor:
- Here's two pennies for your damned pennies! The robber got scared and ran away.
He ran to his people, neither alive nor dead, and only chattered his teeth out of fear:
- Eh, brothers, it’s good that we survived! We divided the money by the cap and each of us got a cap, but there were so many dead that each of us only got two pennies. And the last one didn’t have enough of those, so he started screaming! They tore the cap off my head and gave it to him instead of two pennies.
The robbers got scared and fled in different directions. And both brothers became rich thanks to the robbers' goods, began to live quietly and peacefully, and never deceived anyone again.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru