At nightfall, two travelers came to the same village and, as custom required, came to the leader to greet him and ask for lodging for the night.
“Welcome, O strangers,” the leader told them. - We welcome you. We will have a house where you can spend the night and food with which you can refresh yourself. But know that in our village there is one custom that has been preserved since ancient times. Anyone can stop here for the night, but under threat of death, they must not snore in their sleep. Remember this well. If you snore, you will be killed.
Having said this, he ordered both to be escorted to their place of accommodation for the night, and soon the tired travelers went to bed. But as soon as they fell asleep, one of the guests began to snore: “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” His friend woke up. He heard the sounds of snoring: “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” And then I heard other sounds: “Chick, chick, chick.” It was the villagers sharpening their knives. The traveler immediately understood what this meant: they were preparing to kill the snoring man. At that very moment he figured out how to save his comrade. In time with the sounds of snoring, “Wow, wow, wow,” he began to sing a song:
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa! We walked along the road. We came to a village. They told us: “Welcome.” Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa!
He sang loudly, and people could no longer hear the snoring - only the song. They put their knives aside and began to dance. Drums appeared and music began to sound. Song followed song, dance followed dance. All residents of the village: women, children, the leader himself - joined in the general fun. All night one stranger snored, another sang, and the villagers danced and had fun.
In the morning, strangers came to say goodbye to the leader. He wished them a good journey and gave them a large wallet with money.
“This is a reward for your wonderful singing,” he said. “Thanks to you, strangers, we spent the night dancing and having fun.” We are very grateful to you for this.
With the leader's gift, the travelers left the village. But on the way, a dispute began between them: how to divide the money?
“I should get most of it,” said the one who was snoring. “Without my snoring, it would never have occurred to you to start singing, and we wouldn’t have received any gift.”
But he answered him:
- That's right. If you hadn't snored, I wouldn't have written the song. But if I hadn't started singing, you would have been killed. The villagers were already sharpening their knives. Therefore, most of it should, of course, go to me.
So they argued and argued, but could not come to an agreement. And to whomever they met, no one could judge them.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru