What Happened to the Merchants

Leonty Kurararu was known as a great joker. Whenever he cracked a joke, news of it would spread throughout the entire area. Whenever two or three people gathered somewhere, the conversation would inevitably turn to him, and they would endlessly recount his pranks, each one more outrageous than the last. Here’s one such story they tell about him, for example.

Once, some merchants came to our village, and after finishing their business, they started looking for someone to take them to the train station. They came across Petrya Duduka, who had a pair of nags—skin and bones—just like their miserable owner. They struck a deal with him. Petrya placed two sacks of straw in the cart instead of seats, covered them with a coat, and off they went.

At first, the road was smooth, and Petrya bravely urged the horses on. But about three miles from the station, a steep incline began; many a man had toiled and shouted to get up that hill.

At the foot of the hill, Petrya stopped the horses to let them catch their breath. He glanced at the merchants, hoping their conscience would kick in, but they sat there as if nothing was wrong, with no intention of getting out of the cart. Petrya leaned his shoulder against the cart, cracked his whip, and urged the horses on:

"Come on, horses, take it easy, let’s go!"

The horses strained, giving it their all, pulling and pulling—but to no avail! The hill was too steep, and the merchants sat in the cart as if spellbound. Halfway up the hill, lo and behold, Leonty Kurararu appeared, coming down the hill light and easy, clearly having just taken some people to the station and now heading home. As the carts drew level, Leonty reined in his horses.

"Is that you, Petrya?"

"Yes, brother Leonty."

Leonty looked at the horses, at the merchants, and frowned.

"Stop, damn you, I’ve finally caught you!" Petrya’s eyes widened in confusion.

"Yesterday, when I was climbing this very hill, why did you whip my horses? And now you’re pretending you don’t know anything about it? Well, I’ll give your horses a taste of the whip too."

And with that, he started lashing out wildly, mostly hitting the merchants’ backs.

The merchants writhed, howling at the top of their lungs, and quickly jumped out of the cart—scattering in all directions—while Leonty kept chasing them with the whip. He gave them a good thrashing, then spurred his horses and flew down the hill—only the spokes of the wheels were visible.

The merchants no longer wanted to get back into the cart. They walked the rest of the way, cursing and spitting, while Petrya Duduka chuckled softly and gently urged his horses on.

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