There once lived a man who was very poor and he complained about it every day. “There is no happiness for me,” he kept saying. But one night he had a dream. Happiness appeared to him and said: “Go to the next town. Happiness is waiting for you there in a rotten cherry.”

“What a strange dream,” thought the poor man. “I want to go to the next town and see if I can find the rotten cherry.”

He immediately set off. When he got to the town, he walked through all the alleyways, but he didn't find a rotten cherry. It was already dark when he passed a market stall and there was a rotten cherry right in front of it.

The poor man quickly bent down and picked up the cherry.

“What are you doing!” shouted the farmer, ”you've stolen something. Put it back!”

The poor man was ashamed, opened his hand and said, “It's just a rotten cherry,” and told him about his dream.

The farmer laughed: “Is that why you walked all the way here? You're pretty stupid. I had a dream too. I saw a well with water flowing from three pipes and a house next to it. And in the house under the stove was a treasure. Am I supposed to go away because of a dream and dig for treasure in someone else's house?”

The poor man was even more ashamed, dropped the cherry and ran away quickly.

It was already dark when he got home. He went to the well in front of the house to drink some water. He held his hand in front of one of the three pipes from which the water flowed and thought: “Did the farmer talk about this well and my house?”

He quickly ran into his house, dug a hole under the stove and found a pot full of gold coins.

From that day on, the man was rich and from then on he said every day: “Yes, my luck was in a rotten cherry!”

Fassung Djamila Jaenike, nach: W. Eschker, Mazedonische Volksmärchen, Köln 1972, Übersetzt ins Englische von Lysander Jaenike © Mutabor Märchenstiftung