Grandfather Goes to School

In his very old age, Grandfather became a burden on his extended family and they tired of having him around the house all day, lording over them with old stories of his younger days, and giving them confusing advice so out of date with their own lives. At the same time, they still respected him and did not wish to put their own inheritance in jeopardy by doing anything foolish or unkind.
Grandfather had lived a hard life, so hard that he had never been enrolled in or attended the village school as a child. His son decided that to be rid of him, they would send him to school to get him out of the house for most of the day, and to tire him out so that when he did return home, it would be late and he would just eat the family meal and go to bed, and then rise early to be gone before the rest of the household awoke.
So the arrangements were made with the headmaster, and Grandfather was enrolled at the village school. On the first day there was something of an uproar, but by the end of the day the  other children were used to the idea, and the man was as quiet and attentive at school as he was talkative and disruptive at home.
On the way to school his second day, Grandfather mused to himself how this was turning out to be a wonderful adventure and now that the other children had gotten used to him, he would be able to learn things he had never had time to learn as a child working on his father's farm or as a young man working in the city. He could also re-learn all the things he had forgotten of history and kings in all the years since he had been a schoolboy. He was just finishing a quiet prayer of thanks to Tzadkiel, the angel of fathers and sons, when he spied a large leather bag lying on the path. Peering inside he found it filled with gold coins. Seeing no one else around, and taking this as a clear answer to his prayers, he took the bag with him, and kept it hidden in his satchel all day; At school other things held his attention so that he had all but forgotten about it on the way home, when the postman confronted him.
"I have lost a bag this morning. Have you seen it, Grandfather?"
Grandfather assumed the fellow meant a bag of messages and letters - what other bag would a postman have? "I certainly haven't. You aren't a very good postman if you lose a bag and look for it all day, but can't find it."
The postman was furious, and swore at the old man. He suspected the old man had found the money, and had kept it, so a few days later, still unable to find the bag of gold, he took the old man to court over it, and the Baron agreed to hear the case.
The Baron asked the postman about his complaint. "Explain to the court what you are confronting this old man about."
"I lost a bag of money, and I suspect this man found it and kept it, even when I had asked him about it. Under the law, he is a thief just the same as if he took it from my carriage when I wasn't looking."
The Baron turned his attention to the old man, who suddenly realized the mistake he had made in assuming the bag had been full of letters. Being an honest man, and not wishing to deprive the postman of his money, Grandfather answered in the affirmative. "Yes, my Lord, I did find the money, and I kept it. I am truly sorry for not knowing what the postman had meant."
"And when did this take place?"
"This happened on my second day of school, my Lord Baron," The old man answered.
"The second day of school? And the postman waited until now to report it to me? Any money you've found is yours, and the postman would do well to keep as good of an account of his bags as he does his account of old injustices." Infuriated, the Baron dismissed the case, on the grounds that the postman had waited so many years to report the loss.

Spread

A popular Imperial story featuring Tzadkiel, the celestial patron of fathers - and grandfathers. The archetype of the wily, or merely lucky, old fellow is here reinforced by a simple misunderstanding, that leads to an even larger misunderstanding by the Lord Baron over the town.

Variations & Mutation

In some retellings in the Basilidean east, the old man gives the postman his gold back, only to be reunited with it after various misadventures involving more direct interference by the Angel Tzadkiel. In a west-coast Valentinian variant in the Dregagt and Soame regions, the story explicitly says that the postman had stolen the money, and when the crime was discovered, Grandfather earned a reward in addition to being allowed to keep the money. The most common version is this one, however, stripped to the essentials of the tale and its two misunderstans

[A Variation on a Traditional Carpatho-Rusyn Folktale]