This one was handed on to me by a member of family:
Back in the Middle Ages a Polish peasant was working in his field when he picked up an old lamp. He rubbed it on his tunic sleeve to get rid of some of the grime when a genii popped out.
The genii told him that he would grant him three wishes for getting him released from his lamp prison. He asked the peasant farmer 'what would he like his first wish to be?' The peasant took a while to think that through before making up his mind. Then he said "I want the Mongol horde to come and devestate this country."
The Mongols came and devestated Poland. When they left the genii asked the Pole what his second wish would be? The peasant replied "the same again"! So the Mongols came through again and left the country ruined.
For his third wish the peasant wanted more of the same. The Mongols returned and razed the country for a third time.
As the Mongols galloped off to the east leading a cloud of dust the peasant picked himself up from the furrow where he had hidden from the Mongols and the genii shook his head in wonder. "I don't understand you" he proclaimed. "You could have had anything in the world yet you wished for this catastrophe three times running. Why?"
The polish peasant relied " because every time the Mongols come to Poland they have to pass twice through Russia."
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There must be quite a lot of Ukranians these days who would love to find a lamp like that.