I know a priest who serves in a town near Moscow.
Not far from the place where he serves, there is a small square, and in the square – a monument to St. Nicholas.
More than once in conversation with me, this priest shared with me the sorrow that this monument is some kind of lonely and unkempt, no one looks after it.
And in the spring the priest told me the good news that there was a man who donated ten beautiful ornamental trees to St. Nicholas.
Father organized a Saturday, gathered people. Put in order, planted flowers and tui near the monument, everything became beautiful and well-groomed.
A few days later, on the eve of the spring festival of St. Nicholas, the priest came to me for a cup of tea sad and puzzled.
— What happened, Father? — I asked him.
And he says,
— St. Nicholas’ tui have been stolen!
— How’s that?
— There you go. Some people arrived in broad daylight wearing work jackets. No one even paid attention to them – well, workers and workers. And they dug up the tui, they put them in the car and they were like that.
For some reason, this news made me very, very happy. I was really laughing.
My father did not appreciate my reaction:
— What’s so funny?
And I say,
— You know, Father, I have heard a lot about St. Nicholas in my life — about how he was asked for something, or about how he was thanked for something, for example.
But for St. Nicholas to be robbed — about this for the first time
The feast of St. Nicholas came. That day the priest called me back in high spirits.
— How are you, Father? — I asked him.
— All right! St. Nicholas Tui returned!
— ?!
— Yes, right on the holiday came to the temple some man, wrinkled in appearance, on the face — bruises and scratches.
Says:
— We stole tui at the monument in the park a few days ago. And then we went and got into an accident. The guys are in the hospital, and I got off easy. They call me from the hospital, they say – we need to return the tui, not for nothing happened to us. So we repent in our affairs and return the tui. True, we have already sold them on the market, but we return others, they are even better than before. They were small, and these were big. And not ten grand, but fifteen.
Some time passed, and these people came to the father again – they brought tui again.
They say:
— These are the ones we stole. We put them on the market for sale, and they were returned to us — they are not sold. Everyone else buys and these people don’t. Some damned thing you say. They ask where we got them.
I laughed again and said to my father:
Father, you were sad, and now you have twenty-five instead of ten tui. With that in mind, you’ll have to trade your own tui soon.
That’s a funny story. But it’s not just about thieves and tui.
How many centuries ago Saint Nicholas reposed to the Lord, but, as during his life, he continues to glorify the Lord with his deeds. Helps, comforts. And sometimes he warns – like, for example, such unfortunate thieves from one suburban town.
Priest Dmitry Torshin
Holy Land Charitable Foundation
Investment in the Soul!
Orthodox stories from life
