036. (El Pobre Avaricioso) The Greedy Pauper
A pauper went through these roads begging from house to house and living poorly on what was given to him. One day, as was his custom, he knocked on [the door of] a house to ask for alms, but the people from the house told him that they, too, were very poor and that they could not give him anything. [But] The man insisted and insisted [on receiving something]:
Come on, [just] give me anything.
And they said to him:
But if we don’t have anything, then we can spare nothing [for you].
And the pauper said:
Well, [I’ll take it] even if it’s just a chickpea.
In view of this, they gave him a chickpea and he went on his way. And he walked until he saw another house and, as it was night [already], he asked to lodge there for the night. They told him to come in, and the pauper then told the lady who waited on him:
Ma’am, where can I keep this chickpea, which is all that I have?
Well, just leave it there in the pot -said the lady.
The pauper went to bed and when he went to look for his chickpea the next morning, he could not find it; and he said to the lady:
Ma’am, give me my chickpea, for I cannot find it.
The lady went over to the vase and said:
Oh, it must have been eaten by a hen!
And the pauper said to her:
Well, if you don’t give me a chickpea, then give me the hen that ate it.
They began to argue and finally, not wanting to hear from him anymore, they gave him the hen.
The pauper left with his hen and walked all day, and at the end of the day he got to another house and asked for lodging [there]. Before going to sleep he asked where he could put the hen and they told him to bring it to the pen. And the next morning, when he went to look for the hen, the hen was no where to be found. They started to search for it and discovered that the sow (female pig) had eaten it. And the pauper went on and said:
Well, if you don’t give me the hen, then give me the sow that ate it.
The people in the house did not want to give him the sow, but in the end they had no choice but to let him have it and the pauper left with the sow. And as he had taken up the habit [of asking for lodging], when night fell the next day, he again asked for lodging and requested to have the sow put away. They kept it in the stable and he went to sleep.
And the same story happened once more: when he got up he saw that the sow was dead in the stable and he asked for the cause, [to which] the people in the house told him that the cow had killed it out of an oversight [on their part]. And the pauper did what he had done the other times:
Well, if you don’t give me the sow, then give me the cow that killed it.
And so he went off with the cow, [being] more and more cheerful by his luck. And then he arrived at another place where he [again] asked for lodging [for the night]. There was great bustling in that house because a daughter of the owners was getting married the next day, so that they invited him to stay and celebrate with them and the pauper said yes [to the invitation]. They placed the cow in the stable and he spent the next three days celebrating the wedding, which was [most] magnificent. And at the end of the festivities, [having been] well fed and rested, he asked for his cow and took leave. And they said to him:
Ah, but we have killed the cow for the wedding [celebrations].
And the pauper said:
Well, if you don’t give me the cow, then give me the bride.
They did not want to [do this], but the man gave them such grief that in the end they had no other recourse but to give him the bride. The pauper put her in his sack, threw it on his back and went off searching for another house, contemplating on how much he had gained with each exchange.
And with that he ran into another house where they gave him lodging, and he said:
Where can I leave this sack?
Right at this very place, in a corner of the kitchen -they told him.
Then the pauper went to beg for food at the other houses that were close by and left the sack there. But it turned out that the godparents of the bride lived in that house. They were about to make cakes and the boys in house began to sing:
Mother, make me a cake.
And then a voice came out from the sack which said:
Godmother, make me one, too.
They were all surprised [upon hearing this] and went to see what was in the sack, and there they found the bride. So they took her out of the sack and put lizards and snakes in her place. The next morning the pauper took his sack, which was where he had left it, and left the house without saying a word. And when he was on the road, all the bugs in the sack began to move about and when he opened it to see what was going on, they greatly frightened him that he fell dead [then and there].
[And] That was what happened to the pauper for being greedy and opportunistic.
—– VOCABULARY —–
Amasar – (culinary) to knead; (to prepare) to mix, to mix with water; (to accumulate) to amass
A pasar – to happen; to spend
Aprovechado – opportunist, freeloader
Atender – to look after, to attend to
Aunque – even if; even though, although
Avara – (avaricious) miserly
Avistar – to sight, to catch sight of
Bicho – (insect) bug; (animal) beast, creature, critters
Cerda – sow, pig
Corral – pen, corral, yard
Culebra – snake
Déme lo que sea – give me anything (sea – whatever)
Descansar – to rest, to take a break
Descubrir – to discover, to uncover
Discutir – to quarrel, to argue
Dueño – owner, proprietor
Entregarse – to yield, to surrender
Festejo – party, festivity
Gallina – hen, chicken
Guardar – (to place) to put away, to put; (to reserve) to save, to keep, to hold
Lagarto – lizard; alligator
Llevar – to take, to carry
Madrina – godmother, maid-of-honor
Padrino de boda – best man
Pesado – irritating, annoying, pain
Rebuscar – (to look for) to search
Revolverse – to toss and turn, to writhe
Susto – sudden fear, scare, fright
Vaca – cow
Vasar – kitchen cabinet, hutch