Once upon a time, when the dear holy God still walked the earth, in worn out clothes wandered amongst the people, and tested the people, who is good and who is bad.
And there lived a poor woman.
While walking the Holy God arrived at her house also, and as he eagerly looked into the window and saw that the poor woman was inside, kneading bread, kneading the dough in a kneading trough, working with great modesty.
He said to himself:
- Now I will test this creation, I will come to know whether good will lies in her heart or not!
And He knocked there and said:
- What are you working on, my sister? What are you doing with so much zeal?
To this the poor woman answered:
- Why do you ask, my brother? Your eyes can see what I'm doing! I bake bread for my children!
And the Holy God said then:
- If you are already baking the bread for your children, I pray, please bake one loaf for me also. I have not eaten anything for so many days, and terrible hunger gnaws my stomach!
- Well, she said – You will have what you ask for! Come back in half an hour for it!
Then the Holy God went away, she tore out the loaves from the dough and put them all in the oven. For the beggar she scraped from the bottom of the kneading trough whatever remained and gave it a shape of a loaf and left it to bake with the others.
When she took them out to her surprise she saw that the loaf made from the remains of the dough had become the biggest; beautiful, roasted, red-skinned, it had changed into a huge bread and smelled so deliciously, as if it had been baked from the golden wheat from Creator Father’s heavenly garden! She felt sorry that she had promised the loaf to the beggar, and resolved to deny him, if he comes again.
She slipped below the trough, lied on the baking shovel.
Taught the two small children to say:
- If that vagabond comes again for his loaf of bread, act as if I were not at home I do not want to speak to him as I cannot tell him the plain truth that I cannot give him the crisp-skinned wheat bread! Tell some lie to him!
The Holy God returned at the designated time and enquired from the tiny tots who opened the door:
- Where is your mother, my children?
The children answered:
- Oh, great traveler, our mother had long back gone to the peasant’s village, she wants to buy all sorts of things in the store!
And the Holy God said then:
- Oh, my children, your mother is at home and due to this act now I pass my judgment for her! Since she expelled the compassion for me from her heart, I curse her at this very moment! She should become an ugly turtle and will not be freed from the weight of my words, as long as this world exists!
And so it happened!
Look at the turtle: he has the same head as that of a female who has tied the shawl on her back, and there on his back is the trough, and there is the shovel stuck to his body, on which she laid ! The shovel handle can also be seen protruding under the trough: it is still recognizable: it became the turtle's tail!
The miser woman was punished in this way by the dear Holy God!
Translated from Hungarian by me
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