Copy Book Archive

The Peasant, the Penny and Marko the Rich Marko adopts drastic measures to get out of repaying the loan of a penny.

In two parts

Music: Nikolai Medtner

© A. Savin, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0. Source

About this picture …

Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street in Moscow, a mixture of fashion shops, art salons, hotels and historic buildings. It is shown here in 2013, on the on the annual Day of the City.

The Peasant, the Penny and Marko the Rich

Part 1 of 2

Marko the Rich and his daughter Anastasia enter into other Russian folk-tales, in which he is not necessarily as amiable as he is in this one. On this occasion, he goes to extreme lengths to sidle out of a negligible debt.

ONCE upon a time, a peasant gave a penny to a beggar in the street. Marko the Rich decided he would do the same, but borrowed his penny from the peasant on the plea that he had no small change. ‘Come to my house tomorrow,’ he said, ‘and I will repay you’.

The peasant called round several times, but Marko never had a penny to spare. At last, Marko whispered to his wife, ‘Tell him I’m dead’, and stretched himself out under a white sheet.

The peasant was most sympathetic. He said a prayer for Marko’s soul, and it was no trouble to him to cleanse the ‘corpse’ in scalding hot water, according to custom, while tactfully ignoring its stifled cries and writhing limbs. Then he helped the grieving widow pick out a coffin, and settled himself comfortably in the local church to keep vigil beside it.

Jump to Part 2

Précis

A wealthy man named Marko cadged a penny from a peasant to give alms to a beggar, promising to repay the loan next day. To avoid his debt, he and his wife pretended he was dead, but the sly peasant insisted on cleansing Marko’s body painfully in hot water, and staying beside the coffin all night. (56 / 60 words)

Part Two

© Smgs323, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0. Source

About this picture …

The Church of the Presentation of Mary in Kapystichi, Kursk, Russia, near the border with the Ukraine.

THAT night, two thieves crept into the church to divide up their ill-gotten gains.

They had not noticed the peasant sitting quietly in the dark, and jumped out of their skins when he interrupted them in the middle of a childish argument over a gilded sabre, to suggest that the prize should go to the one who was man enough to chop off the head of the corpse in the coffin.

At that, the corpse sat up with a shriek, and began scrambling out of his casket. The two thieves ran for their lives.

Some time later, Marko and the peasant had finished sharing out the robbers’ loot between them, and sat back in companionable contentment.

‘And now’ said the peasant, introducing a discordant note, ‘how about my penny?’

Marko looked at him across his heap of gold coins, jewellery and silverware. ‘I’ll have to owe you’ he said solemnly. ‘I’ve no small change.’

Copy Book

Précis

Two thieves entered the church where Marko was pretending to be dead, carrying their swag. When the peasant, keeping vigil still, suggested they decide an argument by decapitating Marko, the supposed corpse let out a yell that frightened the thieves away. Marko and the peasant shared the swag, but still Marko claimed he had no penny to repay his debt. (60 / 60 words)

Source

Based on ‘Russian Fairy Tales’, by W. R. S. Ralston.

Suggested Music

1 2

Fairy Tale Op. 34 No. 2 in E minor

Nikolai Medtner (1880-1956)

Performed by Georgy Tchaidze.

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Fairy Tale Op. 54 No.2

Nikolai Medtner (1880-1956)

Performed by Boris Berezovsky.

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