This week, on Myths and Legends, it's a folktale from Russia about how you should give biscuits

to every stranger you see ever, and that making an idea with the devil can be a great idea,

if the devil wants you to leave and never come back.

The great of this week is why you might want to be discerning with your pets' snacking choices,

because they might become super smart and conspire to kill you.

This is Myths and Legends, Episode 204. Get in the bag.

This is a podcast where I tell stories from mythology and folklore. Some are incredibly

popular stories you might think you know, but with surprising origins, and others are stories

that might be new to you, but are definitely worth a listen. The story this time is a Russian fairy tale

setting the late Middle Ages or early modern period. It's a fairy tale though, so none of that

super matters. We'll just jump right in to meet a soldier on the day before retirement,

with no idea what he's going to do next.

3 Biscuits

25 years in service to the Tsar and the soldier was retiring on 3 biscuits. He was over 40 now.

He had frozen camping in the north. He had been sunburned and sweltering in the south.

He had almost lost a foot that time they were on campaign and had to sleep in a bog.

He had given the Tsar the best years of his life, and all he had for it were 3 biscuits.

He laughed that night with friends as they drank wine together one last time. It was over for him.

It was over for all of them, and tomorrow the brothers and arms went their separate ways.

Tomorrow he had to figure out his life outside the army. The next morning a headache pulsed

on the edges of his awareness. There were shouts and backslaps from his comrades.

The invitations for them to come visit at each other's houses flew back and forth.

...