"What reward shouldst thou have?" asked the Tsar.
"If the truth must be told, I got for thee the pig with gold
bristles, the deer with golden horns and a golden tail, and the
golden-maned steed with golden tail."
"How canst thou prove that?" asked the Tsar.
"Command thy sons-in-law, Gosudár, to take off their boots."
The sons-in-law began to make excuses; they didn't want to take off
their boots.
"Take off your boots," urged the Tsar; "there is no harm in that."
They took off their boots. The Tsar looks: one toe is missing.
"Here are their toes," said the simpleton. "Order them now to take off
their gloves."
They removed their gloves, and the Tsar saw there was a finger
missing.
"Here are their fingers," said the simpleton. "Order them now to take
off their shirts."
The Tsar saw that the affair was coming true, and ordered them to
undress. They took off their shirts, and the Tsar saw that each one of
them had a strap cut from his back the width of two fingers.
"Here are the straps," said the simpleton; and told the whole story as
it was.
The Tsar didn't know how to entertain him, nor how to reward him. He
gave him the whole kingdom, and the other sons-in-law, because they
had deceived him, he had shot.
The simpleton went to the open field and cried with a shrill voice:
"Oh, blue-brown, cunning bay, stand before me as leaf before stem!"
The horse ran, the ground trembled, the simpleton crept into one ear
of the steed and out of the other, and became a hero and a beauty.
He came home, began to live with his Tsarevna and win wealth.