Attempted theft of Boryna’s hidden money

The attempted theft of Maciej Boryna’s hidden money turns a rumor about cash in the house into a test of who can control the family’s vulnerable household. Michał the blacksmith tries to draw Hanka into searching for it, but her suspicion grows until she catches him probing the grain store herself; a later break-in leaves Burek dead and the storeroom ransacked, yet the money remains beyond the intruders’ reach.

The Search Begins

Michał first approaches Hanka as if seeking to put their quarrel behind them. He raises the question of whether Maciej Boryna said anything more while ill, then shifts from the dispute over the hog to what he calls a weightier matter: village talk that Maciej has a considerable amount of ready cash hidden in the house. He presents the search as protection against the money being lost after Maciej’s death or falling into a stranger’s hands, but his attention to Hanka’s face and his suggestion that she coax the hiding place out of her make the proposal feel less like disinterested concern.

Hanka does not tell him that she knows where the money is. When Michał prompts her to recall Maciej mentioning the grain and barrels, she says he had been speaking about sowing. The exchange reveals the pressure beneath his apparently casual questions: Michał is trying to turn Maciej’s remarks into clues, while Hanka keeps her knowledge guarded. His claim that Maciej would confide in her if she drew it out cleverly also implies that he wants her to do the searching for him.

Her wariness sharpens when she learns that Michał has gone into the house. Hanka sends Witek the Stork-Keeper to check who entered, then hurries to Maciej’s bedside. Jagna Borynowa is sewing by the window, and Michał is absent; he has offered the explanation that he is looking for the key to a cart once lent to Maciej. Hanka checks the hallway and yard before going into the closed storeroom, where she finds him with both arms plunged into the grain barrel, rummaging through it.

Michał claims he is checking whether the grain is sound for sowing. Hanka rejects the excuse and accuses him of having tried to mislead her so he could act as he pleased. When he threatens her, she warns that she will shout for the village to hear and see what he is. He looks around the walls, then retreats, cursing. The encounter turns the household’s hidden stores into contested ground: Hanka has not disclosed what she knows, but she has stopped Michał’s search and made clear that she will not let him intimidate her into yielding control.

The Break-In and Its Aftermath

The later attempt comes not through the front door but beneath the storeroom sill. The household initially fails to notice the dogs are missing; then Józka hears a muffled whimper outside and finds Burek dead by the gable wall, his head smashed. The discovery brings everyone running, and Jagustynka spots the large hole dug beside the sill-beam, with earth piled outside. The family realizes that someone has tried to tunnel into Maciej Boryna’s storeroom. They fear the intruder may still be inside, but the light entering through the breach reveals only the wreckage: grain strewn across the floor, clothes pulled from their rails, and skeins of yarn and wool tangled together. With everything disturbed, no one can tell what may have been taken.

Hanka recognizes what the others do not: she believes the blacksmith made the attempt. The thought that he might have found the money had she left it there even one more day makes her conceal her satisfaction as she checks something in her bodice. When Rocho asks who was responsible, she identifies Michał, adding that he had come hunting with something in mind but had failed to get it. The money has escaped the search, though the break-in has cost Burek his life and left the household exposed to fear and suspicion. The Village Head of Lipce finds a bloody iron rod and identifies it as what killed the dog; passed from hand to hand, it is recognized as a tool used to forge harrow teeth. The object supplies a grim physical trace of the intrusion, while Hanka’s certainty about the would-be thief remains a private conclusion rather than a publicly established accusation.

The Dogs and the Hidden Entrance

The break-in also leaves a second dog in danger. After the family finds Burek dead, Pietrek jumps into the potato pit, rolls away a huge bundle of straw blocking the entrance, and pulls out Łapa, whining but alive. The concealed dog and the tunnel beneath the sill show how the intruders used the farm’s own storage spaces and obstacles to approach the storeroom; the failed theft therefore harms the household even without carrying off its hidden money.

What the Failed Theft Establishes

The episode draws a sharp line between what the household can prove and what Hanka knows. The broken storehouse, dead dog, and bloody iron rod establish a violent intrusion, but they do not publicly establish who planned it or whether the hidden cash was the intended prize. Hanka’s certainty about the blacksmith remains hers alone. That gap matters: the attempt is thwarted materially, yet suspicion survives as a private burden, and the household’s security depends not only on keeping its stores hidden but on Hanka’s ability to defend them without turning suspicion into an accusation the evidence cannot settle.