“The Blabbermouth." The falcon under the hat: Russian merry tales and fairy tales, Selected and translated by Guy Daniels, New York: Funk & Wagnalls; 1969, pp. 24-28.

Tale Summary

One day an old man was out checking his traps, when he came upon buried treasure. He didn’t know what to do, because his wife was a terrible blabbermouth, and he knew that he would be in trouble with the barin (he found the treasure on his property) if his wife knew about it. So he reburied it, marked the place, switched the rabbit caught in the rabbit trap with the pike caught in the fish net, and then went home. He ordered his wife to make pancakes, and while she had her back turned, stuffed many in his knapsack. When she confronted him about his apparent appetite, he told her he had found buried treasure and they would need the energy to retrieve it. When they set out, the man walked well ahead of her, and placed pancakes on tree branches along the way. The woman was baffled, but her husband told her they had only fallen from the pancake cloud which had passed overhead. He said they ought to check his traps, and when she was surprised to see a pike in the rabbit trap, he acted surprised that she didn’t know some fish walked on the ground. When she was shocked to see a rabbit in the fish net, he explained it as a simple water rabbit. After they dug up the treasure and headed for home, they heard a sheep making noise, and the man told the wife that it was the devil beating the barin, and they better run home before they were beaten, too. He told his wife she must not tell anyone about the treasure, but the next day the whole town knew, including the barin, who confronted the old man. He explained that his wife was not in her right mind, and so the barin sent for her, asking for her to describe all that happened. She told him about the pancake cloud, the fish in the rabbit trap and the rabbit in the fish net, the treasure, and how they heard the devil beating him. The barin angrily sent them both home, and the old man went happily.