There was once a poor man, he had three sons. When the hour of his death came, he called all three to his bedside.
- Well, my sons, what I have I leave to you.
He had a scythe, a rooster and a cat.
- One will have the scythe, the other the rooster, the third the cat.
As the old man said this, he closed his eyes and never opened them again. The lads scratched their heads.
- What to do with this strange fortune?
He who had left the scythe, went out into the world. He thought he would go until he reached a country where the scythe was unknown. Well, after a lot of walking, he found that country. There they did shoot the grain with cannon.
But it was no good, because where the wheat was on a slope, the cannonball took the wheat down; and where it was on a hill, it went under the thorns. And the lad just watched what they did with the precious grain.
- What are you doing?
- Aratunk.
- This is not the way to harvest!
- How?
He took out the scythe, and the hay fell neatly.
The people went straight to the king and told him what a tool the lad had brought. The king bought the scythe from the lad for a lot of money. From that time on, they had the blacksmiths make a scythe there, and they reaped with a scythe.
When the lad came home, he showed his brothers the sack.
- Look how much money I got for the scythe!
Then the middle lad set off to test the world with his cock.
- Well, I'm going to go until I get to a country where they don't know about cock.
He went from one country to another, but he saw roosters everywhere, in many places even on the top of the tower. He had already worn out seven pairs of boots when he finally arrived in a country where roosters were unknown. He was asked time and again:
- What's that strange animal under your arm, lad?
- It's a weather vane.
- How do you tell the time?
- It always signals the dawn.
They brought the good news to the king, who bought the rooster from the boy at a high price.
The lad then picked his way home at a brisk pace to boast of his good fortune.
- Look how much money I got!
No, the third one caught the cat.
- I'm going on the road with my inheritance. I will not stop until I reach a country where the cat is unknown.
As he went from one country to another, he saw so many mice in one country that they were running everywhere, you could hardly walk away from them. The lad asked:
- Why do you have so many mice?
- Why, why? We can't destroy it, what do we do with it? What's that in his neck?
- This is the king of mice.
- The king of mice? Then how does he rule the mice?
- This is how all mice are commanded.
Then let's go to the king!
They went to the royal castle. Sure enough, there were so many mice there that you couldn't move. They were even running around on the table. The lad let the cat go.
It started to touch the mice. While he was hungry, he ate them, then he just threw them up in piles. The king liked it very much.
- Well, that'll wipe out the mice from the palace for good!
He paid the lad very well for leaving the cat behind.
Well, the cat was doing his job well, touching the mice, but then he got thirsty. He started meowing, looking at the king and the queen.
- What does it want?
They ran out of the palace and told the soldiers:
- Get a cannon in here real quick! The room where the cat's holed up must be blown up! Who knows what it wants, why it's meowing, looking at us like it might eat us!
They rushed into the room, the cat jumped out of the window in fright, ran away, and the king gave a great cry of joy:
- It doesn't matter if he ran away, just that we escaped from him! Now he won't come back!
And the lad came home, and showed his brothers how well he had done, and how much he had got for the cat.
The three brothers have been living happily off their money ever since, if they haven't died.
