The Three Army Surgeons



3 feldsherers let themselves be mutilated, believing to be able to heal again. But a cat steals their body parts. Can a replacement be found?

Three barbers traveled the world who thought they had learned their art and came to an inn where they wanted to spend the night. The innkeeper asked where they were from and wanted to go out? "We travel the world on our art "Show me what you can do," said the innkeeper. The first said he wanted to cut off his hand and heal again tomorrow morning: the second said he wanted to rip out his heart and heal again tomorrow morning: the third said he wanted to put his eyes out and heal again in the morning." If you can do that," said the landlord, "then you have learned the lesson." They carried them with them all the time. So they cut off their hands, heart and eye, as they had said, put them together on a plate and gave them to the innkeeper: the innkeeper gave it to a girl who was supposed to put it in the cupboard and pick it up had a secret treasure who was a soldier. As the landlord, the three barbers and all the people in the house were asleep, the soldier came and wanted something to eat. Then the girl unlocked the cupboard and got him something, and because of her great love she forgot to close the cupboard door, sat down at the table with her lover, and they chatted with each other. As it sat so happily and thought of no misfortune, the cat snuck in, found the cupboard open, took the heart and eyes of the three surgeons by the hand, and ran out with it. When the soldier had eaten and the girl wanted to pick up the utensils and lock the cupboard, she saw that the plate the innkeeper had given her to keep was empty. Then she said, frightened, to her sweetheart, "Oh, what do I want to do, poor girl! The hand is gone, the heart and the eyes are gone too, how will it fare for me tomorrow morning!" "Shut up," he said, "I want to help you out of trouble: there's a thief hanging outside on the gallows, I want him cut off the hand; which hand was it?” “The right one.” So the girl gave him a sharp knife, and he went and cut off the poor sinner's right hand and brought it to him. Then he grabbed the cat and put out its eyes; now only the heart was missing. "Didn't you slaughter, and isn't the pork in the cellar?" "Yes," said the girl. "Well, that's good," said the soldier, going down and getting a pig's heart. The girl put everything together on a plate and put it in the cupboard, and when her lover had said goodbye, she went quietly to bed.
In the morning, when the barbers got up, they told the girl to get them the plate, put your hand, heart and eyes on it. Then it brought him out of the closet, and the first one held the thief's hand and rubbed his ointment on it, and immediately it grew on him. The second took the cat's eyes and healed them: the third fixed the pig's heart. But the innkeeper stood by, admired her art and said he had never seen anything like it, he wanted to praise and recommend her to everyone. Then they paid their bill and traveled on.
As they walked along, the one with the pig's heart didn't stay with them at all, but ran to where there was a corner and sniffed around like pigs do. The others wanted to hold him back by his slippers, but that was no use, he tore himself free and ran to where the thickest rubbish lay. The second also acted strangely, rubbed his eyes and said to the other, "Comrade, what is that? those are not my eyes, I can't see anything, someone guide me so that I don't fall." So they went away with difficulty until evening, when they came to another inn. They entered the tavern together, and there sat a rich gentleman in a corner in front of the table counting money. The one with the thief's hand walked around him, jerked his arm a few times, finally, when the gentleman turned around, he reached into the pile and took out a handful of money. One saw it and said, "Comrade, what are you doing? you mustn't steal, shame on you!" "Oh," he said, "what can I do about it! My hand twitches, I have to grab it, whether I like it or not.” They lay down to sleep afterwards, and as they lie there it is so dark that one cannot put one's hand in front of one's face. Suddenly the one with the cat's eyes woke up, woke up the others and said, "Brothers, look up, do you see the little white mice running around there?" The two sat up, but couldn't see anything. Then he said, "It's not right with us, we didn't get ours back, we have to go back to the innkeeper, he cheated us." So they went there the next morning and told the innkeeper that they had the right job couldn't get it back, one had a thief's hand, the second a cat's eyes, and the third a pig's heart. The landlord said it must be the girl's fault and wanted to call her, but when she saw the three coming, she ran away to the back gate and didn't come back. Then the three said he should give them a lot of money, otherwise they would let the red cock fly over the house: so he gave what he had and could only afford, and the three went away with it. It was enough for their lifetime, but they would rather have had their real work.