The Little Bag with Two Coins

Here is a translation of the Romanian folktale Punguţa cu doi bani by Ion Creangă
And here is a slightly modified version that I did for my kindercat: pdf

Once upon a time there were an old woman and an old man who were living in the countryside. The old man had a rooster and the woman a hen. The woman was very proud and happy because the hen laid an egg every day but she was also very greedy and never offered a single egg to the man.

In vain the old man asked the woman for some eggs, she never wanted to hear about sharing them with the man.
– “Beat your rooster if you want to eat eggs! My hen didn’t lay any egg until I started beating it!”

Tempted and greedy, the old man ran after the rooster, caught it and beat the poor animal.
-“You start laying eggs or you’ll leave my house, because you are just a burden to me!”

The rooster escaped from the old man’s hands, scared and dazed, started wandering when he saw on the road a little bag with a couple of coins in it. Very happy, he took the little bag in his beak and went to the old man’s house. While it was going back home, very pleased with its little treasure, the rooster met a carriage with some elegant ladies and a landlord. The man saw the rooster and told the driver:
– “Go down and bring me the little bag from the rooster’s beak!’

The driver took the little bag and brought it to the man. The man put the bag in his pocket and ordered the driver to move on.

The rooster, very angry, followed the carriage and yelled:

Cucurigu, mighty man,
Give me back my two coins bag!

The landlord, irritated by the rooster’s perseverance, seeing a fountain, ordered the driver to throw the rooster in it!

What could the driver do but obeying? He went down from the carriage, caught the rooster and threw it into the fountain! When the rooster saw the danger, he started drinking the water from the fountain until he could fly away from there.Then he started running after the carriage again, yelling as loudly as he could:

Cucurigu, mighty man,
Give me back my two coins bag!

Very angry, the landlord said:
— You trouble rooster, I will take care of you!

As soon as the landlord arrived at his mansion, he ordered a woman from the kitchen to throw the rooster in an oven’s fire. The woman caught the rooster and threw it into the fire, putting a rock at the oven’s door. But the rooster started then to pour all the water he had drunk from the fountain and put the fire out flooding the kitchen. Then he removed the rock from the oven’s door and started yelling again:

Cucurigu, mighty man,
Give me back my two coins bag!

— Well, I found my Godfather with this rooster, says the angry landlord! Take it and throw it into the middle of the cattle, maybe he’ll be crushed by an angry bull and we’ll be over with it!

The driver took the rooster and threw it in the middle of the cattle. That was all the rooster was waiting for. He started gobbling one after another all the cows and all the bulls and flew to the landowner’s window, yelling again:

Cucurigu, mighty man,
Give me back my two coins bag!

The landowner didn’t know what else to do to get rid of this rooster! He threw it in his cellar where all his money was kept, hoping that this way, the rooster would choke itself with one coin.

But, the greedy rooster, emptied the landowner’s chest full of golden coins, got out from the cellar and yelled again:

Cucurigu, mighty man,
Give me back my two coins bag!

When the landowner saw that it was not possible to defeat the rooster, he gave it the little bag only to get rid of it. Happy, the rooster took his little bag in its beak and went back to the old man’s house! The landowner was shocked when he saw all his chickens following the rooster, like at a wedding.
— I am happy not to have anything to do with this rooster anymore, said the landowner, he brought me only bad luck!

Very proud with a whole crowd surrounding him,the rooster got to the old man’s house and started yelling: “Cucurigu!!! Cucurigu!!!”

When the old man heard the rooster’s voice, he got out off the house and saw the giant rooster surrounded by a lot of chickens. He had never seen such a thing before in his life! The proud rooster asked for a rug to be put in the middle of the yard. Quickly, the old man got the rug and the rooster beated his wings and soon the old man’s yard was full of cattle and the rug full of money.

The old man’s eyes started sparkling of joy, and he didn’t know what to do for his clever rooster.

When the old woman saw such a racket, she came quickly to the old man’s yard to see what was happening. When she saw so much money,she couldn’t believe it green of envy.

Ashamed, she begged :
— Please, give me some money, old man!
— Eat your heart up, old lady! Did you give me any eggs when I asked you for? I did what you told me and look what my rooster gave me! Beat your hen too if you want she brings you money!

The old lady, greedily looking at the money, and forgetting that what she had told the oldman to do was just a lie, caught her hen and beated it. The poor hen ran to the road escaping from the old woman’s angry hands.

There, the hen saw a little crystal ball, swallowed it and went home feeling very happy! He flew to her nest and after an hour gave the old lady the good news. The old lady ran as fast as he could to see what treasures the hen had brought home!

When she looked in the nest and saw the little crystal ball, the old lady got so angry that the hen, scared, ran away and never came back again. So the old woman became really so poor that she didn’t have even a hen to eat its eggs!

The old man was carrying his rooster with him everywhere with pride. He gave the rooster a golden necklace and red boots. He built many beautiful houses with many fruit trees and they lived happily ever after.