The Gossiper

A husband and wife lived in a small village. The woman loved nothing more than gossiping. She could never keep her mouth sealed. As soon as she heard anything juicy, the whole village would learn of it in no time. In contrast, the man hardly ever said a word, and always kept a straight face. It was hard for anyone to ever know what he was thinking.

One day, the man went into the forest. He started digging a wolf trap, when suddenly he came across something: buried treasure! Can you imagine? But the man did not express any joy at this discovery, instead he began to fret in silence.

What am I to do now? When my wife finds out about the treasure, she will tell everyone. And when our greedy landlord hears about it, he’ll want to take it away from me and claim it for himself.

So the man thought long and hard about the situation. After a while, he came up with a solution. He buried the treasure chest again, marking the place where it was hidden. And then he headed home.

On the way back, he came to the river. He checked the fishing net he had set-up there. Trapped inside, a trout was fluttering about. He took the trout out of the net, put it in his coat pocket, and went on his way.

Next, he checked his rabbit trap. There was a catch in there, too. The man took the rabbit out, swapping it with the fish. After he put the trout in the rabbit trap, he went to the river and put the rabbit in the fishing net.

When the man arrived back home, he said to the woman: “Dear, fire up the cooker! Make us…