Once upon a time, there was an old farmer. In that old farmer's garden there was a pear tree, and on that pear tree there were beautiful big pears. His neighbour's yard was narrow, and the stable was at the back, just opposite the pear tree.
The man next door had a naughty boy about eight years old. That kid was always up to something mischievous. The thing that caught his eye the most was how many pears were on the old man's pear tree.
Once, when the child peeped over the fence, he saw the old man lying on his back under the pear tree, his hat over his eyes and the stick he was walking with beside him.
The pear was very tempting to the child, he could not rest. He thought and wondered how he could get to the point where he could eat from those pears. Finally, he figured it out. He went out and found the hemp rope his father used to tie the hay to the wagon, and tied the rope to the barn beam, and made himself a swing.
The swing was so long, and the yard so narrow, that if he sat on the swing and pushed himself, the swing would just reach the pear tree. Every time he got there he would pluck a pear, and put it in his pocket as he went back.
He drove again, when he got there, he tore one off, went back and put it in his pocket. He had two big pockets. The child drove the swing until he had filled his pockets with pears.
But the rope was worn, and the child was heavy with pears. The next time he bent down, and was just coming to the pear tree, the rope broke, and - whoops! - the child fell. Right on top of the old man.
The old man ran up and saw that the child had a pocket full of pears. He took his stick and whacked the child on the bottom.
So the child got out of the old man's hands and ran out into the street. Well, there was a fair on the street. He stopped on the bridge, touched his bottom, and thought:
"Well, I'll grow up and give back to that greedy old man what I've got." And who knows what else he thought.
As the child is wondering, a man with balloons was just passing by. Many balloons were tied together, and the man carried them and sold them.
Meanwhile, the man came to the front of the pub, there was an armrest. He thought he'd tie the balloons to the stake and go in for a pint of brandy.
The child saw the man tie up the balloons, and he also saw him go into the inn. He quickly ran over and untied the balloons.
When the man put the decis to his mouth in the pub to drink the brandy, he could only drink half of it, because then he saw a child release the balloons.
He ran out with the decis in his hand, not drinking all the brandy, because he knew that the balloons were so strong that the child would be blown away if he released them.
By the time you got there, the child was already in the air because he had released the balloons. Then the man caught him, but he missed the child's foot. The balloons took the little guy away.
The poor child, frightened, held and held the balloons for a while, but soon his hand tired and he let go. Luckily for him, a woman on the bridge was selling a big basket of eggs, and it was on that basket of eggs that the child fell. All the eggs were rotten, but he himself was unharmed.
The woman took the child, gave him a good shove, and didn't let him go until his father and mother came and had to pay for the eggs. The man with the balloon came, and he held his hand in his hand, and they had to pay for the balloons.
Well, his parents scolded the child, but they were happy that neither his hands nor his legs were broken, nothing major happened to him. They paid the woman for the eggs and the man for the balloons, and the old man for the pears, and then they lived on, and live to this day, if they are not dead.
(Ágnes Kovács: Folk tales for kindergarten children)
