Where The Wealth Is Buried
There lived an old man and an old woman, and they had a son. The father was dying, and the son asked him:
“How am I going to live, father?”
“Live so that the plough is silver and the hedge is covered with fox skins,” the father said.
“Do you have any savings? You have lived well, haven’t you, father?” the son asked.
“My wealth is in the field, you can find it there, just dig.”
Now the father died. And the house was rich. When spring came, the boy went to the blacksmith, bought silver and told him to cover the plough with silver.
The blacksmith asked, “Why do you want to silver the plough?”
“My father bequeathed it to me, he said that it would make me rich.”
Then the man bought fox skins and covered all the fences with them. People ask him:
“Why do you hang fox skins on fences?”
“My father bequeathed it to me, he said that it would make me rich.”
The boy went to the field and began to dig. He dug a lot of deep holes. People asked:
“Why do you dig such pits in the field?”
“My father told me that treasure was hidden here, so I am looking for it.”
While the boy and his worker were doing all this, his savings began to melt away. Poverty was setting in. The lad thought: how to go on living, when all the supplies had run out, and there was no use of his father's advice.
He went to wander around the world to see how other people live. He wandered into a widow's house and asked to spend the night.
The landlady asked, “Who are you and where have you come from?”
“I came to see how people live in the world. We had a rich house, but my father died, and before his death he gave me advice; that my plough was silver, the fence was covered with fox skins, and the wealth was hidden in the field, and there I should look for it. I did so. I covered the plough with silver, the fence with fox skins, and dug out the whole field with my worker and found nothing. I am poor, and now I have nothing to live on.”
The widow asked the boy, “Are you healthy?”
“My health is good, but I have no use from my father's advice.”
“That's not how you do it," the widow said. “I'll give you some advice, and if you listen to me, your life will get better. When you return home, chop birch wood and lay it by the fence to dry. You will be warm for the winter; these are fox skins. Plow the field and your plough will be silver. And if you cultivate the field diligently, you will have bread. That's your riches.”
The guy went home and began to live as the widow had taught him. He started to plow and work hard, and he saved up even more good than when his father was alive.
