Russian Fairy Tales :: The Town of Fools

The Town of Fools

In a certain town lived many foolish persons. One man in the town had a son who was unusual in that place because he was by no means a fool. The father found a wife for this son: and two or three days after the wedding the mother told her daughter-in-law to go out and milk the cow. But the girl sat down to her task she hiccoughed. Thereupon she wept and implored the cow: ‘Ah, I did not mean to do that; please don’t speak of it to anybody! If you speak of it and come to him, will be severely scolded.” And so she went on and on, begging the cow to keep her secret.
Now the mother thought:
”It is a long time since my daughter-in-low went milking; why hasn’t she come back?”
And she went out herself-only to find the girl kneeling before the cow and begging her to be silent.
The mother said”
”What is the matter, child?” and the girl replied:
”While I was milking the cow I hiccoughed, and now I am asking her not to speak of it.”
The mother went back to the house and fetched a plate of bran. This she gave to the cow, and begged her not to speak of the sad accident that had happened to her daughter-in-law.
After a time the father came and said”
”What has happened now?”
The mother told him what had happened and explained that the girl was praying the cow not to speak of the misfortune. The father went into the house, brought some more bran, and gave it to the cow. Then all three sat and grieved and entreated the cow.”
Later the son returned and found the house empty. He went into the stable and saw his father and his mother and his wife wailing before the cow and entreating her. “Whatever has happened?” he asked.
When his mother explained, he became very angry and said:
”If today I find there are other people in this town as foolish as you, I will come back to you; but if I do not find any, you’ve seen the last of me for I shall never come back.” And he set out to look for more fools.
As we went along a road, he came upon four men who were trying to carry a long of timber into a house, but they could not do it because they carried the beam crosswise against the door, and so could not move it farther than the door-posts. After a time the men sat down and took counsel together. One of them said, “We must cut the beam in two pieces.” But the owner of the house cried, “No, I need a beam of this length and no shorter.’ Thereupon the others replied, “Very well, we will break down the wall of the house.”
The young man came forward just as they were about to attack the wall of the house with their axes, and he asked what they were about.
When they told him, he said:
”If carry the beam lengthwise, will these be anything to stop you form carrying it though the door.
So they carried the beam into the house lengthwise. Rejoicing of doing this must indeed be clever. If he had not arrived there would have been no door and no wall to the house.
The young man went on his way and was soon passing a field of tall, well-watered cotton plants. But a camel had got into the field, and was busily nibbling the tops of the plants. Just then the owner of the field came back, and seeing the camel he became very excited and called loudly to all the men working in the neighboring fields:
”Come quickly, this camel is going to tread down my freshly watered cotton plants!”
The neighbours came rushing to the field, and then they stood about, watching the camel. One of them said”
”We will throw the camel down and bind its feet and drag it way.” But, despite all their efforts, twenty men could not haul the camel away.
Then the young man crossed over to them and asked what happened.
The owner of the cotton-field replied:
”This is my cotton, and I have just watered it, but a camel has wandered in. if I drive it out it will go crazy and destroy the plants, and so we have fastened its four feet together and are about to haul it away.”
The young man laughed. “You are fools indeed!” he said. “Cannot someone lead the camel out by a halter? It will not tread down much that way. But if all of you who have thrown it down and fastened its feet now drag it through the field, you will trample the plants terribly and do much damage.
So the men unbound the camel’s feet and led it away with a cord round its neck. Everybody was glad and marveled at the youth’s cleverness.
Thereupon he said:
”In this town there are such a great number of fools that I might just as well go back to my father and mother and wife.”
And he went home.