Once upon a time there was a poor farmer who had many children. Once he had sown a lot of millet, but before he could harvest it, the frost came in the fall and destroyed all the millet. The farmer stood there empty-handed. Wordlessly he prepared to leave, when his wife asked him, "Where are you going, dear husband?"
"I am going to look for the frost," he answered.
"What do you want with him?" asked the woman.
"He has spoiled all my millet," said the farmer.
"What can you do with him?"
"I'd love to kill him," said the man.
He set out and met the frost. He said, "Listen, farmer, you can't do anything to me, the frost. You'd better take this sack, and you'll have bread and salt all your life."
"What should I do with the sack?" the farmer asked the frost.
"When you come home, put it on the table and get out of it what you crave."
The farmer was pleased that he now had such a sack. But his brother was very rich and had no children. One day the poor man invited the rich brother to a feast, so that he could have a look at the miraculous sack. The rich man came and said, "I'll give you six beehives and a plow, then you'll have something to plow, after all you have children, and you give me the sack for it." The poor man gave the sack to the rich man, although the frost had forbidden him to give the sack away. The next morning the poor man came to his brother to pick up the hives, but the rich man said, "Brother, have you ever known a sack to contain something that was not put in it?" He had taken the sack, but he did not give the promised hives. So the poor man went back to the frost and complained that his brother had taken the sack from him but refused the promised hives. The frost said, "I told you not to give away the sack! Here you have a loaf of bread and a side of bacon; feed your children properly so that they may frolic merrily. And take this silver sack too. When you get home, hang it on the wall, and invite your brother. He will give you the other sack for this one, and you give him this one for the other." So the peasant invited his brother, and when he saw that the silver sack was more beautiful than the first, he agreed to the exchange. So they exchanged; the rich man took the silver sack and gave the other one for it. The rich man came home with the silver sack and told his wife that he had obtained an even more beautiful sack from his brother, a silver one, and that she should immediately invite the bailiff, the alderman, the magistrate and the popes to a feast. He wanted to prepare a festive meal for them. The guests arrived for the feast, but it was bitterly cold in the house. Now the rich man let the guests sit down at the table and put the sack on the table. The guests made big eyes. But he said, "Sack, open!" Then the sack opened, seven devils jumped out and went at the guests. He should have shouted, "Sack, close!" but he kept shouting, "Sack, under the table!" The guests jumped out the window and fled home as fast as they could. The poor farmer, however, got his first sack back, took out everything he needed from it and never had to suffer hardship again.

Fairy Tale from Ukraine,  translated by S.Fuss/Lysander Jaenike, based on Djamila Jaenike, Wintermärchen aus aller Welt, 2018 © Mutabor Verlag