to the forest and look for them yourself.»
The old woman got angry with his rudeness, but decided to ask:
«Tell me the truth, my dear neighbor: have you been to the huge cliff? Have you tasted the GreediBerry?»
«Yes, I have!» Frol laughed. «And I understood why you forbade me to pick the berries there. I have never seen or tasted anything better than those berries. If I had obeyed you, I would have never known their wonderful taste. That’s why I am offended, and I don’t want to see you anymore! Off you go from my yard!»
Frol drove the kind old woman away. She shook her head with regret, sighed heavily, turned around and went to her hut. And the man’s life was going its way, he did his usual duties. But his life started to change from day to day somehow. His interest in other people’s wealth was greater than the interest in his own fortune.
It happened so that Frol’s cow ate several Greediberries. In some time, it stopped giving milk. The cow became too greedy to give its milk to the owner. Like Frol, it became greedy.
The man spilt several berries in the yard by chance. The hens picked them and stopped laying eggs. They did not want to give Frol their eggs. They became greedy, too.
Time came to gather harvest. Frol came to his field, looked at it and felt glad. The wheat was very good: ripe and magnificent heads with large grains. At this moment he had a worrying thought:
«I have a good harvest, but if I reap it now, my neighbors will see it and come to borrow some. And if I refuse, they will be angry with me and complain to tax collectors about me. They will come, see my good harvest and ask to pay bigger toll than last year.»
Frol felt greedy. He did not want to share his harvest with anybody and decided not to reap it at all. He did not want anybody to get anything. So, his wheat rotted on the field.
Winter was approaching. He needed to chop some wood to heat the house when frost comes. Frol was about to go to the forest, but then he stopped and thought: «Now I will chop some wood for myself, and what if somebody comes at night and steals it?! I may die of offence then. I can’t share my wood with anybody.»
He threw his axe to the fence and decided not to go to the forest.
Frol’s house was old – he got it from his parents. It required a lot of repairs. He wanted to set about repairing his house a long time ago. One of the walls nodded and was about to fall and crumble. But now the owner looked at it with different eyes. He gave it a little thinking and got scared: «If I renovate the house and rebuild it, somebody may want to visit me. Or relatives will come to see me. I will have to give them something to eat and drink. No, I don’t need it. I don’t want to waste my food on guests. I’d better leave the house in ruins. Then nobody will visit me or stay in it.»
That’s the way Frol was living. With one thought in his head – he did not want to do anything that might be good or beneficial for other people. And when it came to sharing anything with anybody, it was death-like for Frol.
Winter came, it became frosty. The cow gave no milk. And the man did not feed it – he grudged hay for the cow. It was hungry, became weaker and weaker and then died. The hens did not lay eggs. Frol was starving them as well. He was too greedy to give any millet to his hens. They died, too.
Frol was cold as he had no wood. He had nothing to eat, his harvest rotted in the field. The man had a quarrel with his neighbors, he became wicked and unsociable. He did not believe anybody and suspected everybody of stealing. And he was so greedy that he never put another word in.
And once, when it snowed heavily, his leaning and ruined house gave way, crackled heavily, and crumbled. The roof and the walls fell on the owner, and that was how he died.
His fellow villagers thought that Frol died because the house fell down on him. And only the old woman, his neighbor, knew that Frol died because of his greediness, not because the roof fell down. Because he did not follow the elder people’s advice and ate too much GreediBerry in the forest. He was too nosy. In reality, the poor Frol lost in this controversy between greediness and stupidity. And only his death cured him of greediness.
Scales of Life
It happened so that a caravan with goods from far-away countries was walking on the road. It was led by three brothers.
The elder brother was the caravan’s owner. Their father left him all his wealth in his will, because he was grown-up and was better versed in trading. His business was going well, he was sly and enterprising. He successfully made others work for himself and did not overstrain himself. He did not blow off his father’s fortune, but he increased it and managed to accumulate a lot of money. He became a rich and notable merchant in his town.
He was dressed smartly and looked neat. He was used to luxury and magnificence. He became fat because of easy life, and prosperity made him arrogant and presumptuous. A real self-complacent nobleman and master.
The middle brother was strong and nimble. He had a lot of heroics daring and brave agility. However, he did not like to work himself, either. He did not learn any good craft. He could not trade for this you should have intelligence and trickery, while nature gave him nothing but strength and dexterity. What he really liked was drunken parties and fights. That’s why he helped his elder brother in protecting goods and accompanied him in travels to defend him from highwaymen. He had beautiful shining armor on, a sword attached to his belt, and a beautiful shining helmet on his head. A real bully of a warrior.
The younger brother had nothing out of the ordinary. No skills of a merchant, no trickery, no strength, no military skills. But he was a kind, modest, easy-going, and hard-working youth. That’s why elder brothers always sent him on errands and let him do all hard and dirty work. He had to make a fire, put up a tent, cook some food and then clean up afterwards – that’s how they used him and ordered him about as they wished. And he did not mind. He did everything he was told well and with a smile. The elder brothers often sneered at the younger one, but he took no offence as he was peaceful and kind-hearted. And he loved his brothers, even though they were sometimes unjust to him. They gave him a lot of work to do, but never thanked him. He wore rags, ate what was left after his brothers and slept where he could. It was like he was not their brother, but a stranger whom they did not know. And he had to serve them like a slave – free of charge, at their first demand. Sometimes the middle brother, using his great strength, could give the younger one a cuff or offend him in another way. And he did that for no reason, just for fun.
The caravan had been returning home for many days. They passed the dry desert and dense forests, overcame high mountains. And once they stopped near a cave and decided to stay a night there. But this cave was not an ordinary one. The inscription on it said that there is a magic wishing rock inside. The elder and the middle brothers read it and got excited. They wanted to enter the cave at once to get what they dreamed of.
The younger brother tried to dissuade them:
«Don’t go there! What if there is something terrible there? It’s impossible to get something without giving anything back!»
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