The story “Qiyomat qarz”

In the story the old shepherd Sarsonboy rides his horse every Sunday to the teahouse at the bridge by the district market and waits, sitting by a broken window. His son G‘ofir was killed in the war; G‘ofir’s friend Haydarali, on leaving for the front, left him two sheep and never came back. More than twenty years later the sheep have grown to over forty, each tied with a red cloth, and Sarsonboy still waits for Haydarali. The teahouse keeper Madumar advises giving the sheep to the kolkhoz, young men out hunting ask him to sell them a sheep, and the old man refuses, calling it a trust (“omonat”). At the end the old man says he must return the sheep to their owner himself and rides home with hope.