Some poor man, after long ordeals, hired himself to a sage for a hundred rubles a year.
When the time for payment arrived, the owner called him and said:
“Of course, I can pay you back now, but think about what is more profitable for you: getting a hundred rubles or learning some wisdom?”
The poor man didn’t know where to stop and decided: “A hundred rubles won’t last me long, but if I get smarter, it will be much better. The mind of a person? help in everything." And he said to the owner:
- Teach me wisdom.
“Okay,” he answered, “listen and remember: never take anything that is not earned by your labor until you are allowed to do so.” For example, you will see a garden in which the trees bend under the weight of fruit and the branches hang over the fence. Don't touch anything.
After listening to this teaching, the poor man went home.
He walked and walked and saw: an apple lying on the bank of the river. He picked it up, took a bite and swallowed the piece. Then he remembered the behest of his former master, but it was too late. Holding the bitten apple in his hand, he walked upstream and reached the garden, where the branches of apple trees, laden with fruits, hung over the water. Having found the owner, he showed the bitten apple and said that he had tasted it without permission.
“Until you tell me to ‘eat to your health,’ I won’t leave,” he finished.
“Why are you hanging around here and, without asking anyone, eating everything you can get your hands on?” – the owner got angry. - Get out!
The poor man went into the outskirts, and in the evening, when the owner was getting ready to go to bed, he appeared to him again and offered to work for him for a whole year so that by the end of the year he would tell him:
- Did you eat my apple? Okay, good luck.
The owner agreed. And so the poor man began to work for him as a farm laborer. A year has passed. The poor man came for payment. Then the owner said to him:
“You owe me one more favor.” I have a daughter - marry her. But I warn you: she is crooked in one eye, one leg is shorter than the other.
The poor man agreed to this too.
“But you carry it in a closed basket,” added the owner. – You will open the basket only when you arrive home.
They brought a horse and loaded a basket with the bride. Then only the owner said to the farmhand:
– May the piece of apple that you ate a year ago benefit your health!
By evening the farm laborer reached home. He left the basket with the bride in the yard, and he went to his relatives.
They were delighted at his return and began to ask what he had acquired during this time. He answered evasively and only said that he got married, but his wife had a slight side eye and a slight limp. Let them know in advance, there will be less gasping and gossip.
Returning home, he saw a painted beauty on the threshold.
- Who are you? he asked.
- Your bride. You brought me.
- How so? Your father told me that you are crooked and lame.
The beauty laughed.
“My father really liked you, and he wanted you to become his son-in-law.” But still I decided to test you. And he liked you because you look like him. He, like you, does not take what belongs to others. By saying that one of my eyes cannot see, he meant that I would not look at other people’s men, but would only look at my husband. And every lame woman is a homebody, since it is difficult for her to run around her neighbors and spread gossip.
The newlyweds lived in peace and harmony. They had a son. When he grew up, his parents decided to send him to study.
“You make an agreement with the teacher,” the wife said to her husband, “tell him that you are teaching our boy only for a day, and you will pay the fee for the whole year.” But this is only if he teaches our son within one day.
The father took his son to the teacher. He worked with the boy all day. By evening the boy returned home. His mother immediately asked him:
- Did you understand everything?
“I know everything,” the boy answered proudly. “But I just forgot one thing on the way.”
“It’s your father’s fault,” the mother sighed. “He tried to eat what was given to him without difficulty.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru