The Peasant and the Cucumbers

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  "title": "The Peasant and the Cucumbers",
  "author": "Leo Tolstoy",
  "publisher_label": "Ririro",
  "source_version": "unknown",
  "content_type": "story",
  "language": "en",
  "summary": "This story follows a peasant whose imagination gets the better of him while attempting to steal cucumbers from a gardener. As he formulates his plan, he entertains a fantasy that quickly spirals into an elaborate dream of wealth and success, beginning with selling the stolen cucumbers to buy a hen. His aspirations continue to grow as he imagines accumulating farm animals and eventually purchasing a house with his own garden. Ironically, while becoming lost in his daydream, he imagines hiring watchmen who would guard his future cucumber patch and calling them to be vigilant. When he absentmindedly shouts out in the present, real watchmen apprehend him and give him a beating, abruptly ending his fantasy and serving as a humorous warning about the consequences of unchecked greed and the complications that arise from it.",
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    "A peasant once went to the gardener’s, to steal cucumbers. He crept up to the cucumbers, and thought: “I will carry off a bag of cucumbers, which I will sell; with the money I will buy a hen.”",
    "“The hen will lay eggs, hatch them, and raise a lot of chicks. I will feed the chicks and sell them; then I will buy me a young sow, and she will bear a lot of pigs.”",
    "“I will sell the pigs, and buy me a mare; the mare will foal me some colts. I will raise the colts, and sell them.”",
    "“I will buy me a house, and start a garden. In the garden I will sow cucumbers, and will not let them be stolen, but will keep a sharp watch on them. I will hire watchmen, and put them in the cucumber patch, while I myself will come on them, unawares, and shout: ‘Oh, there, keep a sharp lookout!'”",
    "And this he shouted as loud as he could. The watchmen heard it, and they rushed out and beat the peasant."
  ],
  "body_text": "A peasant once went to the gardener’s, to steal cucumbers. He crept up to the cucumbers, and thought: “I will carry off a bag of cucumbers, which I will sell; with the money I will buy a hen.”\n\n“The hen will lay eggs, hatch them, and raise a lot of chicks. I will feed the chicks and sell them; then I will buy me a young sow, and she will bear a lot of pigs.”\n\n“I will sell the pigs, and buy me a mare; the mare will foal me some colts. I will raise the colts, and sell them.”\n\n“I will buy me a house, and start a garden. In the garden I will sow cucumbers, and will not let them be stolen, but will keep a sharp watch on them. I will hire watchmen, and put them in the cucumber patch, while I myself will come on them, unawares, and shout: ‘Oh, there, keep a sharp lookout!'”\n\nAnd this he shouted as loud as he could. The watchmen heard it, and they rushed out and beat the peasant.",
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