Dimian the Peasant

Not long ago, or maybe a very long time ago (nobody is quite sure), a peasant named Dimian lived in a village somewhere in Russia. He was stubborn, quick to anger and rough by nature, and he wanted everything done his way. If anyone argued with him or crossed him, Dimian’s fists were ready with the answer.

Now and then he would invite a neighbour over and set out good things to eat and drink. Following the custom described in this tale, the neighbour would pretend to say no, and at once Dimian would start a quarrel. “You have to obey your host!” he would bellow.

One day a clever fellow came to visit. Dimian covered the table with the best food he had, looking forward to the fun he would have. But the guest simply ate the lot, quickly and cheerfully. Dimian was a little startled. Then he fetched his new kaftan, his long coat. “Take off that old sheepskin,” he said, “and put on my new kaftan.” All the while he was thinking, “This time I bet he won’t dare accept. Then I’ll teach him a lesson.”

But the guest slipped straight into the kaftan, pulled the belt tight, shook his curly head and said, “Thank you for the present, uncle. How could I refuse? A guest must always do what his host tells him.”

Dimian’s temper was boiling now, and he was set on getting his way somehow. But what could he do? He rushed to the stable, led out his finest horse and said, “Everything I own is yours.” To himself he thought, “He’s sure to refuse this time, and then it’ll be my turn.”

The guest did not refuse. He smiled and said, “In your house, you are the master.” He jumped onto the horse and called back, “Goodbye, master! Nobody pushed you into this trap but you.” And away he rode.

Dimian stared after him and shook his head. “Well,” he said, “I’ve hit a snag.”

About this tale

“Dimian the Peasant” is the seventh tale in Verra Xenophontovna Kalamatiano de Blumenthal’s Folk Tales from the Russian (Project Gutenberg #12851). It is also the shortest, a village anecdote of only a few paragraphs instead of a wonder tale. Blumenthal calls Dimian a moujik. In her notes on another tale she explains that the word means a peasant who works the land and has no exact English equivalent.

The joke depends on the custom of manners described by the narrator: a guest politely refuses food or gifts at first, and the host presses him to accept. Dimian uses that custom as an excuse for a fight. The clever visitor takes him at his word, using the very rule Dimian loves to shout, “one must obey his host’s bidding.” One of the book’s illustrations, by Lucy Fitch Perkins, carries Dimian’s last line as its caption: “Well, I struck a snag.”

Read the original: Verra Xenophontovna Kalamatiano de Blumenthal, Folk Tales from the Russian (Project Gutenberg #12851)

Best for ages 6–8 — a quick, funny tale about a bully outsmarted by his own rule.

Reading the story closely

Dimian offers more each time, but becomes less generous in intention. The meal, coat and horse form a rising sequence of costs, while his guest repeats the same simple response: acceptance. The trap needs the visitor to refuse; by assuming he can predict that response, Dimian makes himself vulnerable.

Read each offer twice, first as a sincere invitation and then as a threat disguised as kindness. Which words stay the same, and what changes in the speaker’s intention? A guest should be free to decline food or gifts; the comedy exposes Dimian’s demand for obedience, rather than establishing a rule that guests must obey.

Talk about it

• What does Dimian hope will happen each time he offers his guest something?
• Why can’t Dimian complain when the guest rides off on his horse?
• What would a kind host have done differently from Dimian?

More stories like this

• Woe Bogotir — another Blumenthal tale of a peasant and a very unwelcome guest
• The Golden Mountain — a trickster tale from the same book where a schemer is outschemed
• Baba Yaga — another tale from Blumenthal’s Folk Tales from the Russian