Once upon a time, in a little village in Russia, lived a very unpleasant girl named Lana. Lana was greedy, boastful and very lazy! She loved to sit by the fence all day and eat the cakes and tarts her mother baked. “Lana, have you spun the wool?” her mother would ask (for every girl in Russia then was taught to spin wool). Grumbling, Lana would drag herself away from the cakes and haphazardly spin a few skeins. One day, she thought of a wonderful plan. “I’ll invite my friends over for a spinning ,” she thought, eyes gleaming. “They’ll spin wool for me in return for cakes! The party shall be on Monday!” for that was when her parents would be away for a cousin’s wedding in the next village. That evening, she made invitation cards and sent them to all the girls in the village.

When Monday arrived, Lana set out several plates of food. Much to her disappointment, only two (greedy) girls arrived for the party. “Let’s spin while we eat!” Lana said as she handed out the wool. The girls chatted as they ate and spun. The topic veered to ghosts andspirits. Before long, Lana began boasting. “I’m not afraid of ghosts! I’ll eat them for breakfast!” Soon, evening arrived and the two girls wanted to go home. “If you’re so brave,” one of the girls commented.

“Bring us the picture that hangs at the church in the cemetery!” Lana looked at the darkening sky and bit her lip. “If I get the picture, I’ll prove that I’m brave and at the same time the girls will have to stay a while longer and spin more wool!” She grinned. “All right, spin me two skeins of wool each while I bring the picture!” With that, Lana threw on her coat and set off for the cemetery. The sky was already dark when Lana got there. She looked about carefully but the caretaker had already gone home. Cautiously she picked her waythrough the graves to where the church stood.  The picture hung over the door.

“Easy!” Lana thought as she stood on tiptoe, grabbed the picture off its hook and turned to go with her prize. She took two steps and stood stock still. For a white figure was sitting on a tombstone right in front of her! Lana felt her heart beating fast. Then she gave a laugh. It must be one of the two girls trying to scare her! “Who’s behind that shroud?”

She stepped up to the white figure and tugged off the shroud. “Magarite?” But it was not. Oh, how she shrieked when she saw the rotten face of the corpse behind the shroud! Lana sprinted out of the cemetery and ran screaming all the way home.

When she got home, Lana stood for a moment outside the door, trying to calm her nerves. It was only then that she realized that she was holding not only the picture from the church, but the corpse’s shroud. “Ah!” she thought with sudden glee. “How brave I am to bring back the shroud of a corpse!” With that, she flung open the door triumphantly and boasted to her friends about how she had encountered a ghost at the cemetery who had tried to stop her from taking the picture and how she fought the ghost and snatched its shroud! The two girls were properly astounded at Lana’s tale and left in awe of her. “You are truly fearless, Lana,” they said as they waved goodbye.

“But you shouldn’t have taken what was not yours.” Lana shut the door behind them and turned to the skeins of wool the girls had spun. “Now mother will stop nagging…” but a tap on the door interrupted her. “One of the girls must have forgotten something,” thought Lana. Oh how she screamed again when she opened the door, for standing at the threshold was the corpse with the rotten face! It pointed a finger at its shroud. “Here, take it!” Lana threw its shroud out. But a gust of wind blew the shroud back at her.

Lana screamed and thrust the shroud at the corpse. It was blown back again. The corpse stared at her with its sightless eyes and pointed in the direction of the church. “I’m not going back!” Lana shouted in horror and slammed the door. But the knocking continued through the night, louder and louder. Poor Lana lay sobbing in terror under her covers. Finally, she flung the covers away. “All right, I’ll go!” She grabbed the shroud and dashed to the cemetery for the second time that night.

No one ever knew what happened to Lana at the cemetery for she disappeared that night and was never heard of again.