There once lived a poor peasant named Ba U. And he had an older brother, a very rich one. Ba U worked day and night in his brother’s field, but lived from hand to mouth: his brother was greedy and gave very little grain for his work. One day Ba U was sitting in his hut and thinking about where to get some clothes and feed his wife and children. And hungry children cry.
[Chumiza is a plant similar to millet.]
“Dad, I want to eat,” says one.
“Dad, give me some porridge,” asks another.
Ba U could not stand it, put on his old shirt, put on his torn boots and left the house.
And outside it’s bitterly cold, a blizzard is blowing, the wind is howling. Ba U became cold, and he ran to his brother’s house.
Ba U runs, stumbles, and can’t get to his brother: he’s completely weak from hunger. Suddenly Ba U caught on a snag and fell. I wanted to get up from the ground, but that was not the case: my leg hurt, I had no urine. Ba U began to cry: apparently he couldn’t reach his brother. Suddenly he sees a man walking.
“Hey, good man,” Ba U shouted, “help me get up from the ground!”
A man came closer and asked:
-Who is this sitting here? You, Ba Wu?
Ba U looks, his brother’s farmhand stands in front of him. The farmhand helped him get up, and Ba U hobbled on.
Somehow he reached his brother's house. He entered the yard and felt dizzy from hunger: the yard smelled of fried meat and butter. Ba U sat down and began to wait for his older brother. Soon the brother left the house.
- Well, why did you sit down? - yells. - Why did you come? Ba U jumped up and bowed to the rich man.
– I ran out of chumiza yesterday. Lend me a little, otherwise the children are hungry,” he says.
The rich man laughed:
- Look what you want! Where am I going to get enough for everyone? “But I’m not asking for myself,” Ba U sighed. “The hungry kids are crying, your nephews.”
The older brother got angry:
– What kind of nephews are they to me? Unhappy starving people! Their father is lazy and doesn’t like to work - so they sit there hungry. If you worked better, you would have more shit. You wouldn’t walk around the courtyards then, you wouldn’t disturb good people.
Ba U felt offended: he worked all summer from dawn to dusk for his brother, and he called him lazy. He sighed heavily, but remained silent: do people argue with rich people?
And the rich man shouted, and then lit a long pipe and said:
- Okay, I’ll give you half a bag. And in the spring you will give me two bags of plague for this.
Ba U was delighted, bowed to his brother, but he didn’t even look at him.
- Give him half a bag of chumiza! - shouts to the farmhand. - The one that has been lying in the barn for three years.
The farmhand brought out the bag, Ba U put it on his shoulder and set off on the way back. He walks with a limp. And the blizzard got even worse, the snow was still falling, you couldn’t see anything. Ba U walked and walked and got lost. “Well,” he thinks, “I can’t find my way now.” Just when he thought so, he suddenly saw a chibi at the very curb. Ba U was delighted. “I’ll go,” he thinks, “to the chibi, wait until the snowstorm ends, and then I’ll find the way.”
He entered the chibi and saw: an old man sitting in the corner, an old, old, old man, and his face was very sad. Ba Wu bowed to the old man and said politely:
- Hello, grandfather, what are you doing here? Is Sky also lost?
The old man shook his head.
- No, good man, I know the way home. But I just can’t go home: I’m in great grief.
Ba Wu sat down next to the old man.
“Tell me your grief, grandfather,” he says. “Maybe it will make you feel better.”
The old man sighed heavily and began to tell:
“I’m alone in the whole wide world, good man.” I have neither a son nor a brother, but only a little granddaughter. My grandson has been sick for three years and cannot get better. He doesn’t eat or drink anything, and suddenly today he asked me to cook porridge for him. Where can I get cereal? There has been nothing in the house for a long time. Then I took a small grain and went to the rich man who lives on the mountain. I told him everything as it was and asked for cereals: come on, I say, change - I’ll give you a cereal, and you give me some chumiz. I told him this, and he laughed at me: “Why do I need your little thing? - speaks. “I need money.” So I left with nothing and now I’m afraid to show myself: what will I tell my grandson?
The old man fell silent, and tears rolled down his cheeks. Ba Wu looked at his bag: what should he do? At home, hungry children are crying, and the old man’s granddaughters are lying sick, waiting for their grandfather. Ba Wu thought and said:
- Grandfather, grandpa, where is your bag?
“There he is,” the old man answers. - Why do you need it?
Ba U didn’t answer anything, took his grandfather’s bag and poured half of the plague into it.
The old man was completely at a loss with joy. Then he grabbed his small gun and began to poke it into Ba U.
“No need, grandfather,” says Ba U. “We have our own, and we don’t need that either: the grain has been gone for a long time.”
He persuades the old man, and the old man repeats his own:
“Take a grain, good man, maybe it will bring you happiness.”
There’s nothing to do, Ba U took the crusher, said goodbye to the old man and left the chibi. He sees: the snowstorm has ended and the road has become visible. Ba U came home and the children ran out to meet him.
- Dad has come! I brought Chumizu! - they shout.
Ba U's wife took the chumiza and began to cook porridge. She cooked porridge, the children ate their fill, and then the wife said:
-What kind of grain is this? Where did you get it?
“The old man gave it to me,” Ba U answered and told everything that happened. His wife praised him:
“You did well, Ba U, in giving the old man some chumiza.” Maybe his granddaughter will get better now.
She took the cereal, turned the handle thoughtfully and said:
- Oh, if only there was rice in the grain!
As soon as she said so, suddenly the grain mill hummed and creaked - and rice fell out of it. Ba Wu and his wife gasped. And the rice spills and falls, filling up the whole room.
“That’s enough, little one, thank you,” Ba U said, catching himself, and at the same moment the rice stopped falling.
Ba U took a grain crusher - an ordinary grain crusher, there is nothing special about it. I looked around - the room was full of rice. Ba U’s wife turned the handle again:
- Oh, if only there was meat in the grain!
As soon as she said so, the meatball buzzed and creaked, and a huge piece of meat fell out of it. Then Ba U bowed to four sides.
“Thank you, old man,” he says.
And just then Ba U’s youngest son ran up to the cereal. He turned the handle and shouted:
“Give me, little one, a new skirt for mom, a beautiful shirt for dad, and red komusins for us.”
As soon as he said so, the little thing buzzed and creaked, and a skirt flew out of it, and not a simple one, but a silk one, an elegant shirt and red ruffles.
The kids put on their komusins and started dancing. And Ba U and his wife look at the children and laugh with joy.
Then the sons of Ba U ran to the neighbors.
“Run quickly to us,” they shout, “and take big bags with you!”
The neighbors came running to Ba U and saw that the room was full of white rice, and in the middle Ba U was standing smiling.
“Give me your bags,” he says, “I’ll pour rice into them.” Let our guys never know hunger again.
Ba U poured bags full of rice, distributed them to the neighbors and said:
- When the rice runs out, come again. I have a wonderful little thing: it can give you everything you want.
The peasants rejoiced: they will now live happily ever after!
Soon the whole village learned that Ba Wu had a wonderful cereal. Ba U’s elder brother also heard about this and gritted his teeth in anger. “Oh, he is so and so, not only has he become a rich man, he also gives to others. Who will work for me then? No, that won’t happen!” He went to his brother. Ba U was surprised: his elder brother had never come to him before. And the rich man says in a gentle voice:
- Hello, Ba U! Why don't you invite me to visit? I waited and waited, but it never came. You see, he came himself.
Ba Wu smiled in response:
- Come into the room, brother, sit down, you will be a guest.
The rich man took off his komusin, went into the room, sat down comfortably and began to talk to Ba U. He says, and he looks around, looking for a grain. He searched and searched, and suddenly he saw that she was standing in a corner and there was nothing special about her, just like the others.
- Is this a magic grain? - asks the rich man. But Ba U had no idea that his brother was up to something bad.
“She is,” he says.
- And how does she give rice? – the guest is interested again.
“It’s very simple,” Ba U replies. “You need to turn the handle and say: “Give me some rice, kruporushka.”
“That’s it,” said the elder brother, said goodbye and went home.
He came home and waited for it to get dark. The rich man waited for the dark night, quietly left the house and went to Ba U again. He goes looking around, afraid that someone might see him.
The rich man came to his brother’s house, crept into the room where the grain was standing, grabbed it as quickly as possible and ran home.
He ran home, sat down in the middle of the room, put the cereal next to him, turned the handle and yelled:
- Come on, Kruporushka, give me more vodka here!
Creak-creak-creak - the grain creaked, and vodka poured out of it like a river. The rich man opened his mouth wider and let’s drink vodka. He drinks and drinks, can’t stop, but the vodka keeps pouring and pouring. And so the rich man choked.
And the grain is still spinning, the vodka has already poured out of the gate and flowed down the street. People woke up, ran out of their houses and ran after Ba U. Ba U ran to his brother’s house and stopped the crusher.
This is how the rich man was punished for his greed and envy.
And good Ba U never knew poverty again.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru