“Ask what will please thee, but sell.” They offered one, two, three thousand, and more. The simpleton wouldn’t listen to the offers, would not take money.
“But if my deer has pleased you, I’ll sell him, if ye like, at a cheap price,—the middle finger of each man’s hand.”
They thought and thought, and agreed. They took off their gloves and cut off the middle finger. The simpleton put the fingers away and gave the deer.
The sons-in-law came home, and brought the deer with golden horns and a golden tail. The Tsar from joy knew not what to call them, where to seat them, or with what to entertain them.
“Have ye seen the fool anywhere?” asked the Tsar.
“With seeing we have not seen him, with hearing we have not heard.”
The simpleton crept into one ear of the horse and out of the other, and became just such a simpleton as he had been before. He killed his wretched horse, skinned him, and put on the skin; then caught a lot of jackdaws, crows, magpies, and sparrows, tied them around himself, and went home. He came again to the palace, and let out the birds in different directions; his wife was sobbing, and her sisters were laughing. “Our husbands,” said they, “brought home the deer with golden horns and a golden tail, and thy fool—look at him!”
The Tsar shouted at the fool: “What an ignorant lout!” and he gave half the kingdom to his crafty sons-in-law.
The third time the Tsar called his crafty sons-in-law, and said: “My dear sons-in-law, I will give you the whole kingdom if ye will get for me the golden-maned steed with golden tail; I have heard that he is in such a kingdom and such a land.”
The crafty sons-in-law saddled the very best horses and went on their journey.