Prevod

There was once a poor man who went to work for a rich man without agreeing on any wages. He served him for a year, and when the year was up, he went to his master and asked to be paid whatever his master thought he had earned. The master took out a small coin and said, "Here, this is your pay." The servant took the coin, thanked his master, and went to a stream where the water ran very swiftly. When he reached the stream, he said to himself, "Merciful God! How is it that I have earned only one small coin for a whole year's work? Yet God knows whether I have earned even that much. Now I shall put it to the test: I shall throw this coin into the water, and if it does not sink, then I have earned it; but if it sinks, I have not." Then he crossed himself, saying, "Merciful God! If I have earned this coin, let it float upon the water; but if I have not, let it sink to the bottom." With these words he threw the coin into the stream, and it sank straight to the bottom. Then he bent down, took it out of the water, and carried it back to his master, saying, "Master! Here is your coin back. I have not earned it yet, so I shall serve you for another year."

And so he began serving him anew, and when another year was up, he went to his master and asked to be paid whatever his master thought he had earned. Once again the master took out a small coin and said, "Here, this is your pay." He took the coin, thanked his master, and went back to the same stream. He crossed himself and threw the coin into the water, saying, "Merciful God! If I have honestly earned it, let it float upon the water; but if I have not, let it sink to the bottom." As soon as he threw it into the water, the coin fell straight to the bottom. He bent down, took it out, and carried it back to his master once more, saying, "Here, master, is your coin back. I have not earned it yet, so I shall serve you for another year."

So he began serving him again, and when the third year was over, he went to his master and asked to be paid whatever his master thought he had earned. The master again gave him a small coin, and he took it, thanked him, and went back to the stream to see whether he had earned it at last. When he reached the stream, he crossed himself and threw the coin into the water, saying, "Merciful God! If I have earned this coin, let it float upon the water; but if I have not, let it sink to the bottom." When the coin fell into the water, it began to float upon the surface. Then, overjoyed, he took the coin out of the water and put it in his pocket, went into the forest, built himself a little hut, and settled there.

Some time later, he heard that his former master was preparing to sail across the sea in a galley, all the way to another kingdom. So he took his coin to him and begged him to buy him something in that other kingdom with it. The master promised, took his coin, and set off on his journey. As he travelled, he came upon some children by the sea who had brought out a tomcat to kill it and throw it into the water. When he saw this, he ran up to them and asked, "What is this, children?" They answered, "He does damage, so we mean to kill him." Then he took out his former servant's coin and offered it to them in exchange for the cat. The children were only too glad to accept: they took the coin and gave the merchant the cat. He carried the cat aboard the galley and sailed on. As they sailed, a fierce wind arose and drove the galley God knows where, so that for three months it could not regain its proper course. When the wind died down, the master of the galley did not know where he was, but after sailing a little farther, he came to a city.

When word spread through the city that a galley had arrived from an unknown land, crowds came to see it, and one of the men, who was very rich, invited the master of the galley to supper. When he arrived, what a sight met his eyes! Mice and rats were running everywhere, and servants stood with clubs to keep them from swarming onto the table. Then he said to his host, "For God's sake, brother, what is all this?" His host answered, "It is always like this here, brother. These vermin will not let us eat either dinner or supper in peace. And when we sleep, each of us has a chest of his own, and we shut ourselves inside so that they will not gnaw off our ears." Then the master of the galley remembered the cat he had bought for a small coin and said to his host, "I have a creature aboard my galley that would wipe them all out in two or three days." His host replied, "Brother, if you have such a creature, bring it here. I shall fill your galley with nothing but silver and gold, if what you say is true." After supper the master of the galley went and fetched his cat, and told his hosts to go to bed without their chests. But nothing could persuade them to take the risk, so he alone lay down to sleep in the open. Then he let the cat loose, and when it saw so many mice and rats, it began catching and killing them and dragging them into a heap. The mice and rats, realizing who had come among them, fled in every direction. When morning dawned and the household rose, there in the middle of the room lay a great heap of dead mice and rats. Hardly any were still running about the room; instead, they peeped out of their holes. After three days, not a single one was to be seen. Then, in payment for the cat, the host filled the traveller's galley with silver and gold. After that, our traveller set sail for home.

When he reached home, his former servant came to ask what he had brought him for his coin. The master brought out a block of marble, neatly squared, and gave it to him. "Here, this is what I bought you for your coin." The servant was delighted. He took the stone home to his hut and made a table out of it. The next day he went out to gather firewood, and when he came home, the stone had turned to gold and shone like the sun, lighting up the whole hut. At the sight of it, he took fright and ran to his master, saying, "Master, what was that you gave me? It is not mine. Come and see." The master came, and when he saw what a miracle God had wrought, he said, "There is no use denying it, my son! When God favours a man, so do all the saints. Come along, here is your treasure." Then he gave him everything he had brought home in the galley, and gave him his daughter in marriage.