The Master and the Peasant

An old man went to the field to plow and plowed up a treasure of money, a lot of gold—a whole cartload. He brought the treasure home and hid it. Then he said to his wife:

"Old woman, don’t tell anyone!" And he began to watch over her.

But the old woman went to her neighbor and said:

"Neighbor, the old man found a treasure, but don’t tell anyone."

The old man overheard her talking about the treasure and told her to bake pies and pancakes. In the morning, when he got up, he called the old woman, they got into the cart, and went to the field. He took the pies and pancakes with him. And he made the old woman sit facing backward. He scattered the pies along the road. The old woman saw them and shouted:

"Old man, look how many pies!" But he said:

"Gather them, old woman, it’s a pie cloud." The old woman gathered them and put them all in a bag. They rode on. Then the old man scattered the pancakes. The old woman shouted:

"Old man, look how many pancakes!" The old man said:

"It’s a pancake cloud, old woman, gather them." The old woman gathered the pancakes too. They rode through the forest.

"Wait, old woman," said the old man. "I’ll go check: I have a net set up here."

He went and brought back some fish. They reached the river. The old man went and brought back a trap with a hare.

They worked all day. In the evening, they rode back from the field. The old man drove the cart past the master’s house. The master was having a ball. The old man said:

"Listen to how they’re yelling; it seems the devils are beating the master."

A few days later, the rumor spread and reached the master: the old man had found money. The master wanted to take the treasure for himself. He summoned the old man and asked:

"Old man, did you find a treasure?"

"What treasure?" said the old man. "I don’t know anything about any treasure."

"How can you not know? Your old woman says you found it." They called the old woman.

They began to question her:

"Isn’t it true, granny?" The old man said:

"No, I don’t know anything about any treasure." But the old woman assured him:

"How can you not have found it? You did, old man. Remember, when we went to the field, the pie cloud fell?"

"I don’t know," said the old man.

"How can you not know?" insisted the old woman. "And the pancake cloud fell? Have you forgotten, old man?" The old man kept denying it.

"And remember," she said, "when we caught fish in the forest and the hare in the river with the trap?"

"I don’t know," the old man insisted. The old woman got angry:

"How can you not know? Remember when we rode past the master’s yard and the devils were beating the master?"

The master got angry and said:

"Throw her out!"

And so the old man kept the money.

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The Master and the Peasant

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