The Thief Devil

An old man went to plow his field. He took a flatbread with him for lunch. He placed the flatbread on the cart and started plowing.

He plowed and plowed, got tired, and went to the cart to have a bite of his flatbread.

When he arrived, a devil snatched the flatbread from under his nose and ran off into the swamp.

The old man got angry at the devil and chased him with a whip. He ran to the swamp, and lo and behold—the devil fell into a pit. In his rage, the old man jumped in after him—splash!

He reached the bottom of the pit and saw a grand palace full of devils.

The old man started looking around, trying to figure out which devil had stolen his flatbread. But how could he tell? All devils look the same.

"Who's in charge here?" the old man asked the devils.

"That one over there, sitting at the table," they replied. The old man approached him.

"Here's the thing," the old man explained his grievance, "one of your devils stole my flatbread. I don’t have another one. Order it to be returned."

The boss devil said:

"Look among the young ones; the old ones wouldn’t stoop to such things."

The old man approached a group of young devils:

"Open your mouths!" The young devils opened their mouths. The old man looked and saw a half-eaten flatbread in one of their mouths.

"Here it is, my flatbread!" the old man said to the boss.

The boss stomped his foot at the young devil:

"Why did you steal the old man’s flatbread? He’s a poor man, and you’re stealing from him. If that’s the case, take him, old man, let him serve you to make up for your loss."

The old man scratched his head:

"Where would I take him? I don’t even have enough to eat myself. And there’s no work for him."

"Don’t worry," said the boss, "he’ll find work for himself."

The old man agreed and took the young devil. "Maybe," he thought, "he’ll at least go to the forest for firewood sometime."

He brought him home. The old man and his wife took out a handful of grain.

The devil said:

"Let me grind it."

"We can grind such a small amount ourselves; it’s not hard."

"No," the devil insisted, "let me grind it..."

They gave him the grain. The devil started grinding. The wife had already kneaded the dough, but the millstones were full of flour. The old man and his wife began scooping the flour into the storage bin. They filled it to the brim...

The old man praised the devil:

"Now that’s a worker!"

The old man went to plow the field with the devil. The devil said to the old man:

"Hitch me to the plow instead of the horse." The old man hitched the devil to the plow. The devil turned this way and that and plowed the entire field.

"What should we do now?" the devil asked the old man.

"I don’t have any more land," said the old man.

"Then let’s take a plot from the landlord on shares: we’ll clear it and sow wheat."

So they did. The devil cleared, uprooted, plowed, and sowed the wheat in a single day.

The wheat grew beautifully. The devil harvested it, bound it into sheaves, stacked it into piles, and they began dividing it: half to the landlord for the land and half to the old man for the seed and labor.

The devil said to the old man:

"Bargain with the landlord like this: a cartload for him and an armful for us."

The old man told the landlord just that. The greedy landlord thought:

"This is good: a cartload isn’t an armful. I’ll cheat the old man!"

The old man loaded a cart for the landlord.

"Now take your armful," the landlord said to the old man.

"Let my helper take it—I’m too old to carry it."

"Fine, let the helper take it."

The devil spun around the field, gathered all the sheaves into a pile, scooped them up, and carried them home. The landlord could only stare in disbelief...

At home, the devil blew on the wheat—it all threshed itself. The old man filled his storage bins to the top with grain.

"Now," the devil said to the old man, "give me the horse, I’ll go fetch firewood."

The old man hitched the horse. The devil mounted and rode off. In the forest, without an axe or saw, he uprooted the thickest trees, loaded them onto the cart until it nearly touched the sky, sat on top, and clicked at the horse. The horse snorted and galloped off, not caring about the path—through fields, bushes, and fallen trees.

The landlord was riding along the road in his carriage. He stared in amazement: such a scrawny horse, yet it was pulling a cart of firewood loaded almost to the sky! Meanwhile, his four-horse team could barely pull an empty carriage.

"Hey," the landlord shouted to his driver, "let’s swap: take my four-horse team, and give me yours."

"Deal."

The devil gave the landlord his nag, took the four-horse team—and they were gone. He arrived home:

"Take the horses, old man!"

The old man was so surprised his pipe fell out of his mouth.

"Where did you get them?"

"Traded them for your horse!"

"But I don’t even have enough hay for them..."

"Don’t worry, there’ll be hay."

The devil jumped off the cart, turned into a farmhand, and went to the landlord.

"Do you have any work, sir?" the devil-farmhand asked.

"Yes," said the landlord, "there’s a barn full of unthreshed grain."

The devil went to the barn. He spread all the sheaves on the threshing floor, then blew on them—and everything threshed at once: straw in one pile, grain in another, chaff in another.

The landlord looked—everything was perfectly threshed!

"What should I pay you for such work?"
"Nothing. Just give me an armful of hay, if you don’t mind."
The landlord was delighted to have found such a cheap worker.

"Over there," he said, "there’s a haystack by the river. Take an armful."

The devil went, wrapped ropes around the haystack, and dragged it away. The steward saw him and ran to the landlord:

"Oh, sir, you told the thresher to take an armful of hay, but he’s dragging away the whole stack!"

"That scoundrel!" the landlord fumed. "Release the angry bulls on him, let them gore him!"

They released the bulls, but the devil grabbed them by the horns and tossed them onto the haystack.

"Oh, no!" the landlord shouted. "Set the wild boars on him, let them tear him apart!"

They released the boars. The devil grabbed them by the ears and threw them onto the haystack too.

And he brought it all to the old man.

After a year of service, the devil said to the old man:

"Well, old man, have I worked off the flatbread yet?"

"And how!" the old man laughed.

"Then send me home."

"Go on, I’m not keeping you."

The devil wagged his tail and raced back to his swamp.

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The Thief Devil

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