Once upon a time there lived a poor man. He traded anything, just so as not to sit hungry. Once he picked up a bag of moss, put some wool on top and went to the market to sell it. On the way, he met a man: he was also going to the market and was carrying ink nuts, and in order to sell them, he covered them with real nuts on top. The poor people began to ask each other what was in each other’s bag: one said nuts, the other said wool. They decided right there on the road to buy goods from each other. They began to bargain. The one who had the moss said that wool was more expensive than nuts and demanded additional payment, but seeing that the second one did not want to pay extra and only agreed to exchange, he thought that nuts, in any case, were more expensive than moss and he would still win. They bargained for a long time and finally decided that the owner of the nuts would pay two pennies for the wool. But he had no money with him, and to be more sure that the debt would be paid, they fraternized. After that they exchanged bags and went in different directions. Each thought he had fooled the other. And when they came home and took the goods out of the bag, they saw that they had deceived each other.
After some time, the one who gave the moss instead of wool went to look for his brother-in-law to get two pennies from him. I found him in one village among the priest’s workers and said:
- Brother, you deceived me.
“But you, brother, deceived me too,” he replies.
The first began to demand two pennies: once we agreed and sealed the agreement with fraternization, we must fulfill it. Another agrees: he would gladly give it, but he doesn’t have two pennies right now.
“But my priest,” he says, “has a big hole behind the house.” He often climbs into it; money and jewelry probably lie there. In the evening, you lower me into this pit, and when we clean it out and divide the spoils, I will pay you two pennies.
He agreed. In the evening, the priest's worker took a bag and a rope, went with his brother to the pit, climbed into the bag, and he lowered it on a rope. There he got out of the bag and began to rummage everywhere, but found nothing but grain. Then he thought: “If you tell your brother-in-law that there is nothing here, he will probably leave and throw me in a hole. And I will get it from the priest if he finds me here!”
He climbed back into the bag, tied himself tightly with a rope and shouted to his brother:
“Bring the bag, brother, it’s full of all sorts of good things.”
He drags the bag, and he himself thinks: “Why should I share with my brother-in-law? I’ll take the whole bag, and he’ll somehow get out of the hole.” He threw the bag with his brother on his back and ran through the village. Many dogs chased after him, barking. He was tired, the bag began to hang, and suddenly the voice of his brother-in-law was heard from there:
- Pull up the bag, brother, dogs are biting me.
He threw the bag on the ground. Then the one who was sitting in the bag said:
- Again, brother, did you want to deceive me?
“But you deceived me too,” the other replies.
They argued and argued, and finally the debtor agreed to pay two pennies the next time his brother came. That's where we parted.
A lot of time passed, and the priest's worker got a house and got married. One day he and his wife were sitting on the porch and saw that his brother was approaching his house.
“Wife,” he says, “there goes my brother.” I owe him two pennies. Now nothing can be done: I promised to give him the money when he comes. I’ll go into the house and lie down, you cover me, and pretend to be sad and start crying. He will find out that I have died and will return home.
He went into the room, lay down on his back, folded his hands into a cross, his wife covered him and let him cry. Just then my brother approaches the house.
“God help me,” he says and asks if this is so-and-so’s house?
And the wife answers through tears:
- Yes, woe to me, unfortunate cuckoo! There he lies dead!
- God rest his soul! He was my brother-in-law. We worked and traded together. And since such a misfortune has happened, then, of course, I will stay, but I need to accompany him to the grave and throw a handful of earth into it.
His wife says that he will have to wait a long time before the funeral and it is better for him to leave.
- God forbid! How can I leave my brother-in-law? I’ll wait at least three days, and I’ll see him off on his last journey.
The wife entered the house and quietly handed everything over to her husband. He ordered to go for the priest and announce that he had died: let them take him to the cemetery church, maybe then his brother-in-law would leave.
The wife told the priest, he came and brought several people with him. The “dead man” was placed on a stretcher, carried to the church and left there overnight to have a funeral service and burial in the morning. Everyone left, and the brother-in-law said that he could not leave his brother-in-law, because for so many years he had traded and shared bread and salt with him, no, he would guard the dead man all night. And he stayed in the church.
And at night robbers came to the village. They robbed someone's palaces and stole a lot of money, clothes and weapons. Passing by the church, they saw that a candle was burning there, and said to each other:
- Let's come here to share the spoils.
The brother saw that armed people were entering the church and hid in a corner. The robbers sat down and began to divide the money by the hats, and the clothes and weapons - as necessary. They agreed on everything and came to an understanding; There was only one beautiful saber left - everyone wanted to get it. One robber grabbed her, jumped up and said:
“Let’s try it on a dead person to see if it’s as good as we think.” If she cuts off her head in one go, that means she’s good!
And he went to the dead man. And he will jump up and shout:
- Dead people! Where are you?
- Here, we are all ready! — the brother-in-law replies from the corner.
When the robbers heard this, they threw down the saber, left all the goods in heaps and started to run without looking back. They ran away, the ataman said:
- Hey, brothers! We wandered through forests and all sorts of other places, day and night, fought with people, attacked fortresses and palaces - and never flinched, but we were afraid of the dead. Is there really not a young man among us who would dare to return and see how it is in the church?
“I won’t go,” said one.
“I’m afraid,” the second admitted.
“I’d rather attack ten living people than one dead,” chimed in a third.
Finally, one brave man was found and agreed to go. He slowly crawled under the church window and began to listen. And in the church, the brothers peacefully shared the money, clothes and weapons of the robbers. But then they got down to two pennies, argued and almost got into a fight. The robber hears a cry:
- Where are my two pennies? Give me my two pennies!
And just then the debtor saw the robber under the window, quickly stuck his hand out of the window, tore his hat off his head and handed it to his brother-in-law with the words:
- Damn two pennies! Here's to you for two pennies!
The robber got scared and gave chase. Not remembering himself from fear, he ran to his people and shouted:
- Well, brothers! It’s good that we escaped alive! We divided the money by the hats, but when the dead came out, each person only got two pennies. This wasn’t enough for one, so he tore off my hat and gave it to the other instead of two pennies.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru