Once upon a time there was a miserly young man, and that miserly man had a miserly wife, and they had an old, old father. This old father of theirs was so old that his hands trembled so much that when he ate the soup, while he was carrying the spoon from the plate to his mouth, they all trembled out of his hands, and he spilled the dishcloth all over.
When he was about to pour the soup from the plate into the spoon, he dropped the plate and broke it. So the young woman was so angry with her father-in-law. She persuaded her husband to get the old man out of the house and let him go, so that he would not make so much rubbish at their place. The young man had to be forced to do it, because the woman growled so much that he finally bowed to her will.
They went to the market and bought two new blankets. They decided to put the two blankets on the old man's back and set off. Wherever he fell asleep, he would lay down one blanket and cover himself with the other, and sleep that way.
When they got home, neither the man nor the young woman could bring themselves to let the old man go. They had a son about sixteen years old. His father tells him:
- Son, here are these two blankets, neatly tied together. We'll go to the field to work, and when you think we're out in the field, put the blanket on your grandfather's back, take his hand and lead him out into the street. Tell him to go down the road and up the road, to go away and never to come back to us again.
And so the child did. When his father and mother left home, he thought about it and took out only one of the blankets. He put it on his grandfather's shoulder and led him out into the street and said to him:
- Grandfather, you go up or down, but don't come home with us again, because you have no place here.
The old man cried a little, and with the blanket on his back, he started to walk away.
In the evening the man and the woman came home from the field, and they saw the blanket was there, and they looked around, and the old man was not there. They call the boy:
- What about your grandfather?
- Well, I did as you said.
- How?
- I put the blanket on his back and showed him the way to go away and never come home again, because we didn't need him.
- Well, then, this blanket you have here, why didn't you put this on it?
Then the boy stood for a while and said:
- You know why I didn't, Father? It occurred to me that when you were old like him, and I had to make way for you, I shouldn't have to buy you a blanket, you should go away with it.
And then the man looked at the woman, and they were ashamed, and began to weep. Soon the man brought the horse out of the stable and mounted it, and caught up with the old man at the end of the ninth village. He apologized to him, put him on the horse, and led him by the halter until they reached home.
When they came home, they always sat him down at the table, and the child was taught and brought up to respect the old. They no longer minded if the plate was broken or the soup spilled or what would or would not happen, they looked on the old man with kind eyes. They lived decently, and they still do, if they haven't died.
(Ágnes Kovács: Folk tales for kindergarten children)
