Reward and Punishment

There lived two neighbors in a village; one of them owned one hundred sheep and the other only three. The poor one did not have grazing field. So he told his rich neighbor once: “Let my sheep graze with yours; this will not cause you any loss.” The rich one did not quite like it, but finally gave up to the poor one. The poor man’s son took the three sheep to the neighbor’s field and stood on guard for the whole day.

After a while, the king sent for the rich man. He asked for one fat sheep from him. The rich one could not turn the king’s request down, but he found it too difficult to loss one sheep from his herd of one hundred. So he ordered his servants to catch one of the three sheep of the poor man and hand it over to the king’s servants. His servants did the same. But this brought the poor man’s son into tears when they dragged his sheep away.

Soon afterwards, the king wanted a second sheep from the rich man. Again the rich man ordered his servants to give another of the poor man’s sheep. The servants repeated what they have done last time; the boy wept much this time when they took his second sheep away. Now he thought: “The king will ask for another sheep very soon, and the boys of the rich neighbor would take the last one as well; so it’s better that I save the last one.” He took his last sheep far away on a high mountain. There were enough green grazing fields and fresh water on this mountain to nourish his sheep very well.

After a few days, the poor man thought: “I should go to my rich neighbor’s place once and see how my son and the sheep are doing!” As he came there and asked the servants about his son, they told: “We have sent two of your sheep to the king as our master ordered so; your son ran away with the last one!” The poor man wailed and asked them: “Where shall I find them now?” None could give an answer. But he set out without delay to look for them. He could not trace them for long. So he asked the sun above his head whether he could show him the route that goes to his son. Unfortunately, the sun did not know the route. Finally he came to the whirlwind which was looking really wild. The poor man asked him as well, if he could tell where his son had gone. “Yes, I know that for sure; I will move following that direction and take you with me!” Telling this, the whirlwind lifted him up and placed him near his son on the top of the mountain in a blink of an eye. His son was living in a valley where even the sun could not reach.  The poor man was very happy to see him again. Then he came to know, how his son did save the sheep. “But now,” he told, “both of us will stay here and take care of the sheep since this is only thing we own in this world!”

After some days, two travelers came wandering on this mountain. They stopped near the poor man’s place to take rest there. In reality, they were Jesus Christ and St. Peter*. Jesus said to him: “We are very tired as we have travelled a long way. We will die of hunger if we don’t have a piece of meat now.” The poor man comforted him telling, “I can help you there!” He quickly brought his sheep and killed it; made fire and cooked a big chunk of meat for the guests. The guests found it really delicious. After the meal, Christ told the poor man’s son that he should collect all the bones and wrap them in the sheepskin. The boy did so and then they all laid down for a good night’s sleep.

Jesus Christ and St. Peter got up very early in the next morning, gave blessing to the man and his son and left silently. When the poor man and his son got up, they found a large herd of sheep there, in front of which stood their sheep - the one they had killed previous night. The very healthy and fresh looking sheep had something written on its head. It was: “All these belong to the poor man and his son.” Three dogs were busy looking after these from all sides. The man could not hide his joy and happiness anymore. He drove his herd back home.

The whole village gathered together in their home. All wanted to see that large herd of healthy sheep. The man had to tell them time to time, how they were blessed by the two poor travelers. But this made their rich neighbor restless. He thought: “If one becomes rich this way, I can become even richer!” He went back home, called all travelers and beggars, killed all his sheep, cooked the meat for them and served. Then he carefully picked up all the bones, wrapped those in each of the sheep those belonged to and placed those near the travelers and beggars as they were sleeping at night. He could not sleep that night but kept on calculating till next morning, how many more sheep he would get in comparison to his neighbor - he had killed one hundred of those whereas the neighbor killed only one!

As soon as the day broke, he jumped out of bed. He wanted to see a large herd before him. But all the bones wrapped in skins were still lying there as it was. He thought: “Hah! Now I know what exactly happened! The travelers and beggars should have already left by now but they did not!” He yelled at them: “You muggers! Get up and pack up!” But that did not bring any change. The sun continued shining in the sky and the bones of the sheep remained the same. The number of sheep did not centuplicate. He started crying and lamenting now that he had destroyed all his wealth himself. He went on further and drowned himself as well.

But the once poor man became rich and happy now. People say that his son married the princess of the kingdom later on.

 Translation of the “Lohn und Strafe” from “Sächsische Volksmärchen aus Siebenbürgen”

*Jesus Christ and St. Peter, i.e. Christus and Petrus are central character of many folklores in Austria and Bavarian region. There are mythological instances of their travelling together in different places in order to observe human life and sufferings.