Fosterer

There lived an old man - alone, without a wife, without children. He had a house and a piece of field, but no one else. So he took as his sons three orphans from a neighboring village - Andriy, Mykola and the youngest Petryk. He raised them, treated them as his own relatives.

The boys grew up - each with his own character. The eldest, Andriy, was hardworking, smart, and loved livestock. The middle one, Mykola, was also skilled, but he was more concerned about money. And the youngest, Petryk, was kind, quiet, had a big heart, but not as strong as his brothers.

The father named grew old, fell ill. He called his sons to his bed: "My boys, the time has come for me to go to God. I loved you as my own. And now I want to divide the inheritance." He looked at the eldest: "To you, Andriy, I will give the herd - cows and oxen, because you are careful with them." He looked at the middle one: "To you, Mykola, a chest with money, because you are clever at trading.".

And when it was the turn of the smallest, the smallest Petryk, the old man scratched the back of his head. "But I won't leave you anything big, Petryk-the-dove. Just an old bag. Here it is hanging on a nail, in it are my memories and a small thing. Take it as a keepsake of me.".

Petrik cried, not because he had received so little, but because he felt sorry for his father. The brothers buried the said father, as is proper, with towels and prayers. They cried, and then each went their separate ways with his inheritance.

Andriy took the herd and went to a neighboring village, where the pastures were better. He made a good living - he sold milk and meat, and became rich. Nikolai went to the city with the money - he traded, then he borrowed, and also became rich. Only Petrik remained in the old hut with an old bag. He untied it - and there lay an old torn sleigh and dry bread.

Petrik was sad: «What am I going to live on?» And in the evening — a knock on the window. He raised his head — and there was an old woman, even older than his father. Her eyes were poor, her face was wrinkled. «Give me, my dear, a piece of bread, shelter me for the night, because I’m freezing.» Petrik took pity, cut her half of the loaf, and laid the retinue on the bench.

And in the morning he wakes up - the old woman is gone, only instead of a retinue there is a carpet-plane, and instead of bread - a ball of such that wherever you roll it, it will lead you. Then Petrik understood - it was not an ordinary woman, but Fate herself had visited him. She was testing whether he had a good heart.

Time passed. The older brother came to Petrik - his herd in the field was destroyed by hail, the cows were scattered by wolves. The middle one also came running - he lost money in the auction, and he also became a debtor. They stand before the younger brother, sad, without a penny. Petrik did not say a single reproachful word. He spread out the carpet-plane: "Sit down, brothers, I am not laughing at you.".

He rolled the ball: "He'll bring what you need." And he rolled the ball into a box full of bread, meat, and milk. Petrik shared it with his brothers. The three of them began to live as before. And the flying carpet took them on errands, and the ball brought everything they needed. And Andriy and Mykola understood: their deceased father had foreseen everything, and had done it wisely. Because the kind heart of the younger brother turned out to be the greatest treasure. The three of them lived in harmony, worked together, and shared the last. Both the poor and the rich in the village knew that Petrik always had an open door for trouble. Because whoever has a good hand, fate returns it a hundredfold.