FAIRY TALES (text) - 78. THE MASTERY OF THE OLD MAN

THE MASTERY OF THE OLD MAN

Once upon a time there was a man and a woman who had four sons. They brought their children up with great pain and married them. But the boys came out to be not very smart, the brides were worse than boys. Husband and wife grew old, until the day when they couldn’t move neither hands nor feet came.

Before long, the old woman died and her husband was left alone. Boys didn’t come and brides ignored him. He died of starvation, and he was ashamed of the world.

One day, a relative came home and when he saw him like that, he asked:

– Tell me something uncle, how are you doing? Do they bring you any food? Do the brides wash your clothes?

– Don’t ask me, – said the old man. – I am dying of hunger. The head is full of lice and I am losing it at all.

– Listen to me, – said the relative. – I’ll tell them how make them come here running, the boys and brides, to care for you, to wash you, and bring you warm food.

– Tell me how, – said the old man. – I will do that right now.

The boy told him what to do for the boys and brides to care for him, and said:

Tomorrow I will bring you four empty pot. My brother has sent coins from America, I will fill a bowl with them and will bring them here. You will invite the boys to come here and say: “Look at these coins boys! I’ve stolen! I found them down there, at the gate of the garden. If you take care of me, one day these will be yours. I will put these coins in pots, and when I die you will divide them into four parts. “

So the relative continued: – I will let the money for a few days here. Then I will take them and fill the pots with clay.

And they did so. When night came, the old man’s neighbor brought coins, poured them on the bed, took the bag and left. Then the old man invited the boys and they went there to see what he wanted. When they saw the coins they acted differently. Even the brides went running to the old man. They adjusted the old man and did everything he wanted. He began to live like a rich man. A few days passed and the relative did what he had told. Together with the uncle filled the pot with clay, he took the coins and fled.

The boys began to come more often and see how the old man was. He said always the same thing about the coins and they believed him.

After about ten years the old man became very ill, and was lying in bed. The boys visited and took drugs but two days later the old man closed his eyes forever.

The boys gathered, placed him in a coffin and went to see for the golden coins. All pots were filled with mud and no one had the coins. The sons and brides began to curse the old man for the trick that had done.

But it was useless because they already nothing. The old man lived very well in recent years he was left and those who suffered were his sons.