“Of course not,” said the fool, “I will not tell any one, I promise you.”
But soon after this they met a deacon.
“What are you bringing from the wood, children?” said the deacon.
“Mushrooms,” said the clever brothers.
But the fool interrupted and said: “They are not telling the truth—we are bringing gold. Look at it if you will.”
The deacon gasped with astonishment, fell upon the gold, and took as much as he could and stuffed his pockets full of it.
But the fool was annoyed at this, and struck him with an axe and beat him till he was dead.
“Oh fool, what have you done?” said his brothers. “You will be ruined, and ruin us also. What shall we do now with this dead body?”
They thought and they thought, and then they took it to an empty cellar and threw it into the cellar.
Late in the evening the eldest brother said to the second: “This is a bad business. As soon as they miss the deacon the fool is certain to tell them all about it. Let us kill a goat and hide it in the cellar and put the dead body in some other place.”