Once upon a time there was a farmer who had three sons. The two elder ones were clever fellows but the younger son was a simpleton. Before his death the father had made a will according to which the elder brothers were to manage the farm between the two of them and take care of their younger brother as the father feared he could not support himself on his own. The younger brother inherited nothing but a young plough steer.

But since he had no land of his own, the elder brothers used his steer to plough their land. They came in turn to ask the younger one to lend them his steer for tilling the soil. Small wonder the poor beast began to lose flesh and grew leaner from day to day, for the stranger's whip always hits harder.

One day it so happened that a passer-by saw how the elder brothers were treating the steer and told the youngest one, "Your steer will end his days soon if you let your brothers wear him out in harness. Don't be a fool! You better go to the market and sell him. At least you'll have money in your pocket." The young man saw that the stranger was right. He took his steer, fattened him till autumn, then tied a halter round his head and made for the market.

His way led through a thick forest and a fierce wind made the tree-tops sway to and fro. The branches of two close-growing trees kept grazing each other as they rocked back and forth in the piercingly cold wind, and from time to time strange squeaking sounds reached the young man's ears.

And all of a sudden the steer seller stopped in his tracks and listened intently: a 'squeak!' reached his ears, and he asked,

"What's that—are you interested in my steer?"

Squeak! snapped the tree-tops in reply.

The man said, "The steer is for sale, if you're willing to pay my price, you can have him."

Squeak! crackled the tree-tops.

The man asked again, "Would you be willing to pay me fifty roubles for him?"

Squeak! came the reply. "Well," the man consented, "it's a deal. You want to pay right away?"

The wind dropped, the forest fell silent.

"Or maybe in a year's time?" Squeak! creaked the tree-tops.

"All right," the man said, "I can wait. You, old-timer, will have to be my witness and see to it that I get my due." The man turned to a tall tree-stump close by, "Are you willing?"

Squeak! came the reply.

"It's settled then," the man responded, "a year from now I'll come to claim the money, and you will see to it that I get what is mine by rights!"

There was another squeak.

The man tied his steer to the trunk of the pine-tree that he thought to be the buyer and went back home.

The elder brothers asked him what he had done with his steer.

The younger one replied, "I sold it to a villager for fifty roubles."

"Where's the money?" they asked.

"I'll get the money in a year's time," the younger brother answered.

"Someone must have been pulling your leg. You've been cheated out of your money. You won't see even the tail of your steer, never mind the money," the brothers said. But the younger one assured them, "Have no fear about that. We struck a solid bargain and the buyer has got a friend to stand surety for him. I will get my money because they are both honest men. They didn't even try to beat down the price."

The brothers never found out who the buyer and his friend were and they were sure that their brother had been dealing with two swindlers. But the youngest one was quite sure he would get his money in due time.

After a year had passed, the youngest brother made for the forest to claim his money. It was a windless day. Not a leaf stirred. The tree-tops were standing stock-still, and there was not a squeak or crack to be heard. The man went to the place where the bargain had been struck. The trading partners were in their places all right, but there was no sign of the steer; it must have been slaughtered or resold. The man asked the pine-tree,

"Are you going to pay me the money now?"

The pine-tree didn't so much as give a squeak. He asked again but got no answer.

"You wait!" the man exclaimed, "I'll make you talk!" He seized a stout cudgel from the ground and started flogging the trunk of the pine-tree so vigorously that the whole forest resounded with his blows. But the double-dealer bore up well against the torture, didn't so much as let out a single cry of pain, nor promised any payment.

"Very well," the man said and turned to the tree-stump. "You, old-timer, have to give me the money because this cheat of a buyer refuses to pay. Either give me back my steer, or lay out the fifty roubles. It's easier to make a promise than to keep it. What do you say?"

But the tree-stump could not utter a word and the young man exploded,

"Wait, you rascals!" he shouted in a rage. "You're both cheaters!" So saying, he went for the stump now and beat it so viciously that the rotten thing crumbled with a crash under the blows. But underneath the rotten stump there stood a copper cauldron filled with silver coins up to the brim. It must have been buried there who knows how long ago.

"What a rascal!" the man exclaimed. "The buyer must have been an honest man to give you all this money, and you wanted to hide it from me and keep it for yourself! Well, you deserved being crumbled to dust!" And turning to the pine-tree, he said, "Don't be sore with me for having dealt you a couple of whacks as well; but aren't you yourself to be blamed for that? Why didn't you open your mouth and tell me you had settled accounts with the swindler who was out to cheat us both."

Thereupon he heaved the cauldron on to his shoulder and started off home. The heavy load made him often stop to have a rest. On his way he happened to meet a parson. The parson asked,

"What is the heavy thing you're carrying on your back?"

The man replied, "It's the money for a steer I sold last year." And he gave an account of what had happened.

The parson who well knew the simpleton grasped immediately how the young man had come by the cauldron, and he contemplated, "As he has been so lucky I might as well share some of his luck."

"Give me a handful of your wealth, your burden will then be lighter to carry," he told the young man.

The man threw him a handful, "Here, take it!"

The parson said, "Give me another one for my wife."

And the young man willingly gave money for his wife and his two daughters as well. Each got her share. When the parson saw that he was doing a brisk business, he started begging the man for some money for his son, too.

"You greedy hog!" the man shouted. "You're lying! You've got no sons. Are you trying to cheat me the way that rascal did? I'll give you what you deserve!" So saying, he whacked him one on the head with the cauldron so that the cauldron broke and the parson dropped down dead. The coins from the broken cauldron were scattered all around. The man took his bag, filled it with money, picked up the parson's share as well, and walked home.

Greatly surprised were the two elder ones when they saw their brother come home with a sack full of coins of pure silver. He told them all about his adventure, and also about knocking dead the parson. The story about the parson frightened the elder brothers a lot for they feared they might be held responsible for it. So they stole out together and went looking for the body. When they found it, they lugged the body home and hid it till they were able to bury it so that no traces could be found to suspect them of being involved in the murder. But the younger brother had spied on them, and had seen where they had buried the parson.

When the parson's wife and children found him missing, they believed he had been carried off by the Devil himself. They did not want any rumours spread about it and told everyone that the parson had died suddenly. Then they filled the coffin with straw and stones and had a splendid funeral service conducted.

Soon the elder brothers discovered that the younger one had found out where the body was buried and they secretly reburied it in another place. To prevent their simpleminded brother from spreading any rumours they killed a buck and put its carcass in place of the parson's body. They covered the carcass with a broad white sheet so that only a part of the goatee was visible from below the sheet.

The elder brothers had also been invited to attend the funeral ceremony, the younger one had to stay at home. He was bored and became annoyed because he hadn't been invited to the funeral party, thinking,

"Well, if they have not asked me to come, I'll go there uninvited and show them I've got more right to be there than anyone else, for haven't I made it possible for them to have this party?"

The funeral guests had just sat down to dinner when the younger brother entered the room and said,

"What's the meaning of this? You are feasting away here, and not so much as a thought for me who by rights should be the host of your party! Did you or my brothers knock the good parson dead? No, it was me who whacked him on the head with the cauldron, for he got so greedy and wanted a lot more than was his due. I gave him his share, then I gave him money for his wife and for both of his daughters, a handful for each of them. And then he started cadging for some money for his son too! Think of that! Every child knows he's got no son. And it was just for this impudent lie that I whacked him, though I never intended to kill him, I only wanted to teach him a lesson as he was so full of greed. When my brothers lugged him to our house later on, he was already dead."

And this is what the silly brother said at the parson's funeral party. Although people knew him to be a simpleton and did not think much of what he was saying, still there were those who considered that the matter was worth going into a bit more thoroughly. The elder brothers denied everything their younger brother had said, but some men insisted on going and finding the parson's body. The younger brother himself acted as their guide.

When they came to the buck's carcass covered with a white sheet, and spied the goatee that was sticking out from below the sheet, their guide exclaimed joyfully, "See, they've covered the old man's body with a sheet, but the goatee is still showing. Remove the sheet, and you'll find the parson under it, and then you'll admit that I've got every right to attend the funeral party!"

The sheet was removed and they saw a dead buck with its head and horns and goatee all there. Now the men saw that the simpleton—either deliberately or not—had fooled them all right, and they went back to the funeral party and no one so much as mentioned the murder. And this is how the mystery of the treasure trove and the parson's death have remained unsolved to this day.

Jason Ladock

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