About How the Peasant Went to the Other World

Once upon a time, there was a peasant who had saved up two hundred rubles with great difficulty to ensure he would be buried properly when the time came. He had a young farmhand working for him. One day, while the peasant was away from home, his wife sent the farmhand to fetch water.

The boy broke the water jug and, afraid to return home, stayed away until evening. Then he came up with a plan. He returned to the house, showed the peasant's wife the neck of the broken jug, and said:

"Look what I found. If you look through it, you can see the whole world."

The wife, curious, asked:

"Give it to me, and I'll pay you twenty rubles."

"No," the deceiver replied, "give me two hundred, or I won't part with it."

Overcome by curiosity and the desire to see the whole world, the wife couldn't resist. She took her husband's hard-earned money and gave it to the boy.

The boy took the full bag of money and left, while the wife hid the jug's neck, thinking, "When my husband comes home, we'll look through it together."

When the peasant returned, his wife greeted him joyfully:

"Look what I bought! If you look through it, you can see the whole world," and she handed him the neck of the jug.

The husband understood what had happened. He wept and lamented:

"Woe is me! To whom did you give the money I worked so hard to save? You've ruined me!"

But what could he do? He packed a few things for the road and set off to find the deceiver.

He walked for a long time, but how could he possibly find that boy?

Exhausted, the peasant sat by a stream, drank some water, cooled his forehead, and rested.

Nearby was the house of a wealthy nobleman.

A servant of the nobleman came to the stream, saw the traveler, and asked:

"Who are you, and where are you headed?"

"Where? To the devil, to the other world!" the poor peasant exclaimed in frustration.

The servant went back to his masters and reported:

"There's a man by the stream who says he's going to the other world. Do you want to send something to your son?"

The nobleman and his wife were delighted. They called the peasant in, fed him, gave him drink, and handed him a full sack of gold and silver, saying:

"Take this to our son, since you're going there anyway. And tell him, when he runs out of money, to write to us—we'll send more."

The peasant hoisted the sack onto his back and hurried home.

Meanwhile, the nobleman's son-in-law arrived.

The nobleman and his wife greeted him joyfully:

"We sent money to our son! We met a man who was going to the other world and persuaded him to deliver it."

"Oh, woe is us!" the son-in-law cried. "He deceived you! He's not going to the other world—he's stolen the money!"

He jumped on his horse and raced after the peasant.

The peasant, hurrying as fast as he could, kept looking back, worried that someone might be chasing him.

He saw someone on horseback racing after him.

What to do? He looked around and saw a mill not far away.

He ran into the millyard and saw a bald miller sitting there. The peasant shouted:

"Run for your life! The King of the Bald is riding here on his horse, and he's killing all the bald men!" The peasant was out of breath, drenched in sweat.

The miller, terrified, ran and climbed up a mulberry tree, hiding himself. Meanwhile, the peasant covered himself in flour and sat there as if nothing had happened.

The son-in-law arrived.

"Where did that runaway go?" he shouted at the peasant, thinking he was the miller.

"There he is, he climbed up the mulberry tree," the peasant replied.

The son-in-law dismounted.

"Hold my horse," he said, "and I'll deal with him properly. He stole a sack of gold from us."

He climbed the tree, threw the poor miller to the ground, and began to beat him. Meanwhile, the peasant who was supposedly going to the other world jumped on the horse, tied the sack of gold to it, and rode home.

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About How the Peasant Went to the Other World

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