There is a fairy tale in Spain that is told everywhere, but the Basques say that it happened in their mountains...
A long time ago, it’s impossible to say exactly (it’s not for nothing that a fairy tale was told about this), the old devil founded a school in the Salamanca cave in the Pyrenees Mountains. He taught children there for free, and only accepted gifts from parents once a year. He had many students, and he taught them damn well, especially spells. He only had one condition: every year one student did not leave the cave on the last day of classes and remained in the clutches of the “teacher” forever.
So it turned out that, if you are lucky, you will come out of the Salamanca cave alive and learned, and if not, then you will never see the white light.
On the last day of classes, the students hurried to the exit with all their might, but the exit from the cave was narrow, and the devil stood in front of it and asked everyone: “Stay!” - “Let the next one stay!” - the student answered him and ran headlong out of the cave.
The first one got out, the second one remained unharmed, but the last one could not deceive the old devil. And it was like this from year to year, for many years.
There was, however, one boy who deceived the old devil.
“I will go last if you wait until noon and only then start leaving the cave,” he told his friends.
Friends were happy. We waited until noon and began to slowly leave the Salamanca cave.
- Stay! - the devil said to everyone.
- Let the next one remain! – the boys answered him with a light heart.
It's our brave man's turn. At that moment the sun rose right in front of the exit from the cave, and the boy’s shadow lay on the floor so that it seemed that there was someone else behind him. This is what the brave man took advantage of.
- Stay! - ordered the old devil.
- Let the next one remain! – the boy shouted and, with all his might, he flew out of the cave. But the shadow that followed him remained in the clutches of the old devil. No wonder he took her for a person!
The boy escaped, but was left without a shadow for the rest of his life. And so he lived: no matter from which side the sun set, it had no shadow. He grew old, but never found his shadow. But otherwise, he had everything, like people do. And if what they say is true, then this man later lived in the city of Burgos.
And the old devil was so upset that he was outwitted - he closed his school and left the Salamanca cave forever.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru