Once upon a time there was a poor man named Panos. He was not a bad person, but the trouble was: no matter what business he took on, everything turned out very badly for him. For this, people nicknamed him - Unlucky Panos.
Panos acquired little property. All he had was a pair of oxen, a cart and an axe.
One day he harnessed his oxen to a cart, took an ax and went into the forest to chop wood. In the forest, Panos thought: “What is this happening? First I will suffer - cutting down a tree. And then I will suffer again - lifting a heavy trunk onto a cart? Here's more! I’d rather do this: I’ll put the oxen under the tree, and let the cut trunk fall into the cart itself!”
I did it as I intended. He drove the oxen to the tree, and he himself began to chop down the trunk. Finally, with a deafening crash, the tree fell to the ground, crushing both the oxen and the cart with all its weight.
Panos was shocked: “It’s all because of the wood - it’s too heavy. Or maybe because of the oxen, because they could have jumped to the side. It’s always like this: someone is to blame, but I’m in trouble.” He took the ax and wandered home, scratching the back of his head in heavy thoughts.
And his path ran along the shore of the lake. There, on the lake, he noticed a flock of wild ducks. “Yeah!” - thought Panos. - “I won’t return home empty-handed, I’ll kill a duck and bring it to my wife.” Panos took aim, swung and launched the ax at the duck.
With squeaks and quacks, the ducks scattered: some of them flapped their wings and flew into the sky, while others simply hid among the reeds. The ax sank like a stone. And Panos stands on the shore, and keeps thinking in his heavy thoughts: what to do?
Finally, he undressed, left his clothes on the shore, and went into the water to look for an axe. The further he went into the lake, the deeper it became. When it became very deep, Panos was afraid that he might drown, and wandered back to the shore.
And it so happened that when Unlucky Panos was wandering in the reeds along the bottom of the lake, one traveler passed along its shore. This traveler saw clothes lying on a stone. I looked around, looked here and there, but didn’t see anyone.
Panos was not visible because of the reeds! What about the traveler? There is no owner, so don’t let the good go to waste. He took the things and took them with him.
Having got to the shore, Panos, of course, did not find any clothes. He was left completely naked. Panos thought again: “Where should I go?”
After waiting for darkness to set in, Unlucky Panos went to his native village. He walks, he wanders, and he keeps thinking: “If I show up naked in the village, what will people think of me? I’ll go first to my brother, whose house is on the edge of the village, and get some clothes from him. And I’ll get home dressed without much hassle.” And he went straight to his brother’s house.
And my brother had guests that evening - they were celebrating some kind of holiday. Panos opened the front door slightly to see what kind of guests they were. And one of the guests, thinking that it must be a dog, threw a bone through the door crack. She flew and hit Panos hard in the eye. He, the poor fellow, roared in pain and rushed to run home.
Meanwhile, the dogs made such a noise, barking so much that people began to leave their houses to look at what was happening around. They look: a naked man is rushing through the village, surrounded on all sides by dogs. Without further ado, people realized: “What kind of scarecrow has come to us? None other than the devil himself!” And let’s shout at him, curse him, whatever the hell, and swear at him, and so they drove him into the forest. While they were driving away, the dogs managed to tear off one of the poor fellow's legs. Unlucky Panos again found himself in the forest. There he was naked, blind and lame and went missing.
The next day a rumor spread throughout the village: “Panos has disappeared. He went into the forest for firewood and never returned.” The villagers gathered at a gathering and decided to send volunteers into the forest to search.
There, in the forest, they found a cart and oxen crushed by a tree. But Panos was nowhere to be seen. Then they met some wanderer who was wearing Panos’ clothes.
- Hey guy, where did you get that outfit from?
- Brothers, these things were ownerless. I found them on the shore of the lake and took them for myself - the good stuff shouldn’t go to waste.
The villagers went to the lake and searched everything around. But it’s all to no avail - Panos has disappeared and that’s it!
People concluded that Panos must have drowned. The villagers ordered a memorial service in the church for the repose of Panos’ soul, and then held a wake for him.
Panos's widow grieved and grieved, poured out bitter tears, and remembered him with kind words. And then, when the mourning ended, she married another man, and went to live with him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru