73 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
73 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
A SHREWD FARMER'S STORY
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Once upon a time there lived a farmer who worked far from his home in the
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fields of a rich baron.
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In the past, gangs of bandits hid in the mountains rising behind the plain
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but the emperor had sent his soldiers to find and kill the thieves and now the
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area was safe and quiet. Every once in a while, however, old weapons from past
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battles could be found in the fields.
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While he was chopping a stump one day, the farmer found a bag full of gold.
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The farmer had only ever seen silver coins in his life, and he was so
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astonished to find all that gold, that when he started walking home it was
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already dark. On his way home, the farmer thought about the problems that this
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sudden wealth could cause him.
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First of all, everything found on the baron's territory belonged to the
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baron. By law, the farmer had to hand the gold over to the baron. The farmer
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decided that it was much more fair for him to keep the treasure because he was
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very poor, rather than giving it to the baron who already had a lot of money.
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He realized the risk he would run if anyone found out about his luck. He would
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never tell anyone, of course, but his wife had a reputation for talking too
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much and she would never keep a secret. Sooner or later he would end up in
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jail.
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He thought the problem over and over until he found a solution. Before
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getting home he left the bag full of gold in a bush next to some pine trees
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and the day after, instead of going to work, he went by the village to buy a
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few nice trout, some doughnuts and a rabbit. In the afternoon he went home and
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said to his wife:
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"Get your wicker basket and come with me. Yesterday it rained and the wood
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is full of mushrooms. We must get to them before someone else does!" The wife,
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who loved mushrooms, picked up her basket and followed her husband. When they
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got to the woods the farmer ran to his wife shouting:
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"Look! Look! We have found a doughnut tree!" and he showed her the branches
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he previously loaded with doughnuts.
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The wife was astonished but she was even more puzzled when, instead of
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mushrooms, she found trout in the grass. The farmer laughed happily.
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"Today is our lucky day! My grandfather said that everyone has one lucky
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day. We might even find a treasure!" In addition to being a gossip, the
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farmer's wife was also a sucker. So she believed her husband and repeated,
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while looking around: "This is our lucky day, this is our lucky day."
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The basket of the woman was full of fish by now. When she and her husband
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reached the banks the farmer ran ahead of her, looked into the thicket and
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said:
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"Yesterday I laid out my nets and I want to check whether I've caught any
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fish or shrimps." A few minutes later the wife heard the husband shout:
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"Run and see what I've caught! What extraordinary luck! I've fished a
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rabbit!" They were walking back home and the wife kept talking excitedly about
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the great dinner with the doughnuts, the fish and the rabbit. The husband
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said: "Let's go by the wood again. We could find other doughnuts!"
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They went to the spot where the farmer had hidden his gold coins. The farmer
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pretended to find something.
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"Look over here! There's a strange bag and... it's full of gold! This is an
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enchanted forest. We found the doughnuts on the trees, then we found the trout
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in the grass and now... gold." The poor woman was so excited that tears filled
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her eyes. She could not utter another word and gulped as she touched the shiny
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coins.
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At home, after dinner, neither of the two could fall asleep. The farmer and
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his wife kept getting up to look over the treasure they had hidden in an old
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boot. The day after the farmer went back to work, but first said to his wife:
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"Don't tell anybody about what happened yesterday." And he repeated the
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same recommendation every day after that. Pretty soon, however, the entire
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village had heard about the treasure. The farmer and his wife were called by
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the baron and when they went in to see him the farmer tried to stand behind
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his wife. His wife, at the request of the baron, spoke first of the doughnuts,
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then of the trout on the grass and lastly of the rabbit in the river.
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Meanwhile, behind her, the husband kept tapping his forehead with his finger
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and gesticulating to the baron. The baron began looking at the woman with pity.
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"And then I bet you found a treasure, too."
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"That's right, Sir!" the woman said. The baron turned to the farmer and,
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tapping his finger on his forehead sympathetically said:
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"I see what you mean. Unfortunately, I have the same problem with my
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wife . . ."
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The farmers were sent home and no one believed their story. And so the
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shrewd farmer didn't go to jail and spent his money wisely.
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