Petukhan Kurikhanich

Once upon a time, there lived an old woman, and she had a son named Ivan. One day, Ivan went to the city, and the old woman was left alone at home. Two soldiers came to her and asked for something hot to eat. But the old woman was stingy and said:

"I don’t have anything hot, the stove isn’t lit, and the cabbage soup isn’t cooked."

But in reality, there was a rooster cooking in her stove. The soldiers found out about this and said to each other:

"Just you wait, old woman! We’ll teach you how to deceive soldiers."

They went outside, let the livestock out, came back in, and said:

"Granny! The livestock has wandered out into the street."

The old woman groaned and ran out to herd the animals back. Meanwhile, the soldiers took the pot with the stew from the stove, pulled out the rooster, and put it in their knapsack. In its place, they stuffed a bast shoe into the pot.

The old woman herded the livestock back, came into the house, and said:

"I’ll give you a riddle, soldiers."

"Go ahead, granny."

"Listen: in Pechinsk-Gorshechinsk, under Skovorodinsk, sits Petukhan Kurikhanich."

"Ah, old woman! Too late you thought of it: Petukhan Kurikhanich was in Pechinsk-Gorshechinsk, but he’s been transferred to Suma-Zaplechensk, and now it’s Zaplay Raspletaich sitting there. Now guess our riddle, granny."

But the old woman didn’t understand the soldiers’ riddle.

The soldiers sat for a while, ate some stale crusts with sour kvass, joked with the old woman, laughed at her riddle, said their goodbyes, and left.

Her son returned from the city and asked his mother for dinner. The old woman set the table, took the pot from the stove, poked the bast shoe with a fork, and couldn’t pull it out. "Oh, you rooster," she thought to herself, "look how well you’ve cooked—I can’t even get you out." She finally pulled it out, and lo and behold... it was a bast shoe!

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Petukhan Kurikhanich

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