FAIRY TALES (text) - 61. SAZAN OPEN! SAZAN SHUT!

SAZAN OPEN! SAZAN SHUT!

Once upon a time there were two very rich brothers. One day they were mad at each-other and were separated. The young man took less wealth and little time passed before he became a beggar. But he was ashamed to go out to beg and went outside the village to look around the world. That is what he did.

Having walked for a long time, he came to a dense forest and saw a cave.

I am stooping here and rest for a while, – he said to himself.

So he went and sat behind a bush when he heard a voice. – “Sazan open!”

And instantly, the mountain opened and twenty-seven wild thieves came out. Then again he heard a voice that said: “Sazan shut!”

Then the mountain was closed. The twenty-seven thieves left from there.

The boy was very surprised and said to myself: Oh my God, what place is this? I’ll go and try it once! He stood up and went near the cave and cried out loud: “Sazan open!”

So the mountain opened. The boy entered and stood foolishly when he saw all those pieces of gold, precious stones and a great wealth which he had never seen before.

– What if I get some for myself, – said the boy and filled a sack. When he came out of the cave he called “Sazan shut!” -and the mountain was closed.

The boy did this several times and began to recover, arranged a good home, bought fields and meadows, took workers and servants, but no one knew where all that wealth came from. Every time the boy took money at the cave, he took his big brother’s pot to measure the gold. He did that several times.

– What do you measure with that pot? – said the big brother with himself, and had begun to suspect.

One day he put some wax in the bottom of the pot, so when the little brother went to measure the money, there remained a gold pot. Then the big brother stood up and went to make the little one to tell where he was finding all the money. And he told the truth. Then the elder brother begged him to go together to the cave. They went to the cave and hid behind the bush. When they saw that no one was staying there, the younger brother jumped and said: “Sazan open!”

The mountain opened and the both of them entered inside.

See what to want but do not get anything else except the gold, – said the younger brother – otherwise they will understand.

But the older brother didn’t listen to his words. He took handfuls of gold and in addition some clothes. Suddenly when the oldest brother was going out, a hat fell of his hands at the entrance of the cave.

– Sazan shut! – said the younger brother, and the cave was closed.

When the thieves returned to the cave they saw at the entrance and their leader said:

– Someone is a better thief than us and has stolen us!

– This cannot be possible – other scammers responded. – Who dares to enter this place except us?

They opened the cave and saw that the clothes and gold were missing.

– From this moment onwards, – said the leader- twelve people will stay in the cave and will guard day and night. He who dared to touch our property has to pay for it.

They did not get catch them because the next day the big brother went secretly to the cave. When he arrived there he hid behind the bush and waited a little.

– Sazan open! – shouted the thieves’ leader and fifteen thieves came out of the mountain, and big brother was concerned about the money so he didn’t count how many thieves came out. Once the cave was closed and the thieves left, he approached the place without fear and shouted: “Sazan open” – the cave was opened, but at the first step he made, twelve thieves came out and slaughtered him. When the leader turned back and noticed what had happened, he said to his companions:

– It is also someone else who has become rich with our money. But we will go find him, we have to take everything and he will pay for that.

The leader took several bags, put the thieves inside them, ordered them not to go out without telling him and put them on the mules’ backs. He took the mules and went straight to the house of the younger brother, who was considered the richest man in the country. He asked to stay there for a night because he had a long way to make and the man said that he could stay as much as he wanted. The thief said:

– Do the mules bother you because they are a lot?

– No, no – the younger brother replied – let the mules in the meadow and sacks here in the yard.

After the dinner an old woman passed by, she was the servant of the man and saw what was in the bags. She opened one of the bags and the thief thought he was their leader so he said: – Do we have to go out?

The old woman became afraid, but she was clever, and closed the bag and told the thief:

– Stay for a little while! -and she ran to her master and told him what she had seen.

Then the master gave orders to put as many boilers with water as the bags that they had while he made the thief leader drink so much that when he saw that he could not stay on his feet, he took the ax and cut off his head.

He took the boilers full of boiling water, opened the sacks and said: – Come out now! 

So he burned all the thieves one by one.

To get rid of all those bodies, he called a lunatic and said:

– Take these bags and bury them as far as possible!

The mad man took the first bag and brought it to the sea shore. When he took the second one, he said to himself:

– This has tired me more than the first, so I’ll have to take it further. 

That’s what he did with every bag until he lost all the traces of blood.