Unwanted Money
This happened at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War. In a Kyrgyz village, a young dzhigit worked as a cashier and anxiously awaited being sent to the front. One day, unable to bear it any longer, he ran away into the forest, taking all the money from the cash register with him.
The villagers searched for him for a long time in all the surrounding areas, but they could not find him, remaining without money in such a difficult time. Only after the war ended did the dzhigit return to his native village, exhausted and aged. He walked around the village begging to avoid dying of hunger. The villagers, recognizing him as the former runaway cashier, persistently began to ask him about their money. But he told them that there were no stores in the forest, and therefore he used the money to start a fire. He had no matches, and while striking fire from stones, he was forced to burn the money. Only when faced with incredibly harsh conditions in solitude did the dzhigit realize that fire and warmth are worth more than money. After hearing the story from the former cashier, the angry villagers expelled him from their village.
Thus, the dzhigit paid for his cowardice and greed.
