About the Peasant and the Village Elder

Once there lived a peasant. He had a beautiful wife. The peasant's wife began an affair with the village elder. The peasant knew about it but kept silent. One day, the peasant came home and said to his wife:
"There's honey at the market now. Go buy some, but be careful—don't buy the blinding honey. That honey can blind a person."

"Aha," thought the wife, "now I know what to do. I'll buy that honey and blind my husband."
She went to the seller and asked:
"Do you have any blinding honey?"
"Yes," said the seller, "as much as you want!"
The wife bought a full pot of honey and brought it to her husband.
"You didn't get the blinding kind, did you?" asked the husband.
"No," said the wife.
The husband sat down and started eating the honey.
"Woe is me! I'm going blind, I'm going blind!" he cried. "Oh, you cursed woman, why did you bring me blinding honey?"

The wife rejoiced: now her husband wouldn't be able to see anything.
"Well, since I'm already going blind, I might as well finish the honey so no one else gets blinded," said the husband, and he drank the entire pot of honey.

The wife went to the village elder and said:
"I've blinded my husband. Now it's our time; no one will stop us."
The elder came over. They slaughtered some fine, fat chickens. The wife ran out of water and rushed out of the house, while the elder lay down and dozed off. The husband got up, took boiling water, and poured it down the sleeping elder's throat—he choked to death.

The wife returned, cooked the chickens, prepared dinner, and went to wake the elder:
"Get up, it's time for dinner."
"May my enemy wake up as he did!" she thought.
The woman panicked and begged her husband:
"Take whatever you want, just take this elder and throw him somewhere in the water."
The husband got up, hoisted the dead elder onto his back, and dragged him home. He carried him inside, hauled him onto the balcony, and shouted in a deep voice, as if he were the elder himself:
"Hey, wife, open the door!"
"Oh, you scoundrel! You drink and run off to another woman, but when you sober up, you stumble back home? Sit there by the door—I won't open it, and I won't lift a finger!"
"Open the door, or I'll fall off the balcony!" shouted the peasant.
"Fine, fall and be done with it."

The peasant threw the elder, who tumbled down the stairs and hit the threshold. The peasant stepped aside and hid nearby. The wife ran out, saw the elder was dead, and began to wail:
"Woe is me! I killed him! What will happen now? I won't get away with this!"
The peasant came out.
"Why are you crying and carrying on?" he asked, as if he had nothing to do with it.
"It's like this," sobbed the wife. "I'm guilty of his death. Help me, save me!"
"Give me two thousand, and I'll take him away," said the peasant.

What could she do? The elder's wife gave him two thousand. The peasant hoisted the elder onto his back and dragged him to the mill. He stopped the water, stood the elder up as if he were alive, propped his hands on the wheel's crossbeams, then stepped aside and hid.

The mill stopped, and the miller ran out. He saw the elder.
"Ah, so it's you who stopped my water!" He grabbed a club and knocked him down. The elder fell and didn't move. The miller looked closer—the man was dead. He began to shout:
"What misfortune has fallen upon me!"
The peasant came out.
"Ah! You killed the elder?! Now you'll see what happens to you."
The miller pleaded:
"Just don't turn me in. Take the body somewhere and dump it. I'll give you two thousand."

The peasant took the two thousand, hoisted the elder onto his back, and dragged him to the church. He hauled him up the bell tower, put the bell ropes in his hands, rang the bell a few times, then ran off and hid.
The priest endured it for a while but grew furious. He grabbed a club and struck the elder on the head. The priest looked closer—the man was cold, dead. He panicked and tried to hide the body, but the peasant came out and said:
"Don't fuss in vain, Father. You killed this man, and you'll answer for it."
The priest begged:
"Just don't tell anyone, and get rid of the body somehow—take whatever you want!"
"Give me five hundred rubles and a donkey to carry the body away."
The priest gave him the money and the donkey.

The peasant sat the elder on the donkey and rode off. He reached a village where the peasants had threshed their grain and left it on the threshing floor while they went to rest. The peasant led the donkey into the middle of the threshing floor and hid. The donkey ate its fill of grain.

The peasants returned and saw the donkey standing in the middle of the threshing floor, gorging on grain, with a man sitting on it who didn't even try to stop it. They grew angry:
"Ah, you scoundrel! Can't you see the donkey is eating all our grain? Can't you drive it away?" They grabbed sticks and started beating the dead elder until they knocked him off the donkey.
The peasant came out and said:
"Did you kill this man? You'll pay for this now!"
The villagers were terrified.
"Just don't turn us in, and get rid of the body—we'll give you three hundred rubles."

The peasant dragged the elder away, buried him in the ground, returned home, kicked out his unfaithful wife, and lived happily ever after.

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About the Peasant and the Village Elder

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