The Foolish Man
Once upon a time, in a village, there lived a man and his wife. The man was good in every way: hardworking and not lazy, but he had one misfortune—he wasn’t very bright. One day, the wife sent the man into the forest to gather firewood.“Go,” she said, “chop some wood so I can heat the stove and cook some cabbage soup.”
The man harnessed the horse and set off. When he arrived in the forest, he climbed up a large pine tree, took an axe from his belt, and started to chop the very branch he was sitting on. At that moment, a peasant from a neighboring village happened to pass by. He looked at the man and shouted:
“What are you doing, you fool? You’ll kill yourself!”
The man glanced at him and replied:
“How do you know I’ll fall? You’re no saint! Go on your way.”
The peasant realized there was no point arguing with a fool and rode on. He hadn’t gone more than ten fathoms when the branch broke, the man fell, and hurt himself. He lay there for a while, groaning, then got up and ran after the peasant who had predicted his fall.
When he caught up, he threw himself at the peasant’s feet:
“Dear father! I see now that you are a saint. Tell me, when will my life end?”
The peasant decided to have some fun with the fool and said:
“Go home now, say goodbye to your family, and then return here. You will die by that pine tree you wanted to chop for firewood.”
The man was frightened and asked:
“But, dear father, if I don’t go back to the forest, maybe I won’t die?”
“No, you’d better listen to me. If you don’t, it will be worse.”
The man returned to his horse. He no longer cared about the firewood. He mounted the horse and rode home. His wife had been waiting for him for a long time, and when she saw he had returned without the wood, she began to scold him. But he didn’t listen and told her about meeting a holy man in the forest who had predicted his imminent death. His wife said:
“Stop lying! They were making fun of you, and you believed them!”
But the man said goodbye to his family and went back to the forest.
When he arrived, he dismounted and began searching for the pine tree he had wanted to chop. He wandered for a long time, looking for it, and suddenly he tripped and fell. “Well,” he thought, “it seems I’ve died now,” and he didn’t dare get up.
His horse stood there for a while, then trotted home. Though the man heard the horse leaving, he didn’t dare open his eyes or stand up. He just lay there, motionless. It grew dark. A pack of wolves ran out and chased after the horse. The man still didn’t get up—what did he care about the horse if he was dead?
His wife waited for him for a long time, growing more and more worried. In the morning, she told the village elder that her husband hadn’t returned from the forest. The elder gathered the villagers, and they went to search for the man. They wandered through the forest for a long time until one of them stumbled upon the fool. They all gathered around him, looking at him and thinking he really was dead.
Suddenly, he spoke:
“What do you want?”
The elder asked:
“Why are you lying here?”
“Can’t you see? I’m dead. Are you blind?”
“If you’re dead, I’ll bring you back to life!” The elder took off his belt and began whipping the fool.
The man jumped to his feet, hugged everyone, thanked them for bringing him back to life, and then ran home.
As he approached the village, he saw people carrying a dead body to the cemetery. The man said:
“Take him to the forest! They’ll bring him back to life. I died yesterday, and today they brought me back!”
They beat him and chased him away. From then on, the foolish man was known as “the dead one.”
More fairy tales
- Porridge from an Axe
- The Tale of the Rejuvenating Apples and the Living Water
- Finist the Falcon
- The Man, the Bear, and the Fox
- The Snow Maiden
