There lived an old man and an old woman, they had a son. The father began to die, the son asked him:
- How can I live, father?
Father says:
- Live so that the plow turns silver and the fence is covered with fox skins.
The son also asks:
- Don’t you have any savings? You lived well, father?
- My wealth is in the field, there you will find it, just dig.
My father died. And the house was rich. When spring came, the guy went to the blacksmith, bought silver and ordered the plow to be covered with silver.
The blacksmith asks:
- Why do you need to silver the plow? “That’s what my father bequeathed to me, he said that from this I would live richly.”
Then the guy bought fox skins and hung all the fences. People ask him:
- Why do you hang fox skins on fences?
“My father told me: you’ll live well.”
The guy went to the field and started digging. I dug a lot of deep holes. People ask:
- Why are you digging such holes in the field?
“Father said that a treasure was hidden here, so I’m looking for it.”
While the guy and his employee were doing all this, his savings began to melt away. Poverty has arrived. The guy is thinking: how to continue to live when all the supplies have run out, and there is no profit from his father’s advice.
The guy went to wander around the world, to see how other people live. He wandered into a widow’s house and asked to spend the night.
The hostess asks:
- Who are you and where did you come from?
- So I went to see how people live in the world. We had a rich house, but my father died, and before his death he gave me the following advice: so that my plow should be silver, the fence should be covered with fox skins, and the wealth, they say, is hidden in the field and I should look for it there. I did just that - I covered the plow with silver, hung the fence with fox skins, dug up the whole field with a worker - and found nothing. I have become poor, and now I have nothing to live on.
The widow asks the guy:
- How is your health?
“My health is good, but my father’s advice is of no use.”
“That’s not how you do everything,” says the widow. “Now I’ll give you advice, and if you listen to me, your life will improve.” When you return home, chop some birch firewood and lay it by the fence to dry. You will be warm for the winter - these are fox skins. Plow the field tirelessly - and your plow will turn silver. And if you begin to diligently cultivate the arable land, you will also have bread. That's wealth for you.
The guy went home and began to live as the widow taught him. Having started plowing and working hard, he accumulated even more property than he had with his father.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru