There lived two brothers in a village, one rich, the other poor. The poor man asked and asked his brother for help, but to no avail. The rich brother was very greedy. Then the poor man decided to outwit him. So he once said to his wife:
- Buy a partridge, and my brother and I will go hunting and take a rabbit with me. And then I’ll send the rabbit home, tell him and tell my wife to fry the partridge and wait for my brother and me for dinner.
That's how it all turned out. While hunting, the poor man took a rabbit out of his bosom and said:
“Run, my friend, home and tell your wife to fry partridge and wait for my brother and me for dinner.”
I gave the rabbit a slap and it ran away. The rich brother was so surprised that he forgot about the hunt, all he could think about was how to quickly return and find out if the rabbit completed his assignment well. When they came home, the poor man asked his wife:
“Is dinner ready, wifey?” Did the rabbit give you my order?
- But of course! Partridge is on the table, eat for your health.
The rich man got excited.
“Sell me a rabbit,” he says.
- What are you, what are you, how to sell? I send him here, here, and everywhere.
- Sell it, I’ll pay you well.
The poor man agreed, sold it, and a completely different one, from the rabbitry. The first rabbit was long gone. The rich man took the rabbit, gave him an order, released him - and remember his name!
Some time passed, the poor man ran out of money, and he said to his wife:
- Let's make my brother fork out money again. Mix some small coins into our old donkey’s food, and I’ll invite him to visit. Let him see the money in the dung, I’ll say, it’s the donkey who makes us money.
When the rich man saw the gold, he was stunned and let’s ask: sell and sell him the donkey.
“I won’t sell it for anything,” the poor brother replies. “I got rich with her, soon I’ll become quite rich.” What else! I gave you the rabbit, but for a pittance, and you let it go! I won't sell.
- Sell it, brother, ask as much as you want for the donkey.
It took a long time to persuade the poor man. Finally he agreed and took a lot of money for the donkey.
The rich brother took the donkey home. He ordered the stables to be cleaned, the donkey to be given plenty of food, and he himself waited. But there is still no money. A few days later he ran to the poor man:
- You tricked me, fooled me!
- I’m a fool, since I’m selling you my most precious thing, and you don’t save anything, you know, you spoil it. I will never give in to you now!
There was such a custom in that region. If someone slaughtered a pig, a barrel of fresh meat had to be taken to the abbot. But the rich man did not want to share the meat at all. He began to complain to his poor brother and scold that custom. The poor man advised him:
“When you kill a pig, leave it in the yard overnight, and in the morning hide it and tell everyone that the pig was stolen.”
The rich man was delighted and did everything exactly as the poor man advised. I hung the carcass in the yard and went to bed. The cunning poor man grabs a piglet at night! The next morning the rich man looks - there is no pig! He ran to his poor brother, shouted, complained, and he laughed:
- Well done, brother! Just tell everyone that, and you won’t have to give anything to the abbot!
The rich man screams even louder, swears even more - he knows that the meat was really stolen! And the poor guy is bursting with laughter. So the rich man went home with nothing.
And the rascal laughed to his heart’s content and said to his wife:
- Well, wife, you and I got hold of some pork.
That's how a greedy rich man needs it.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru