A father and his only son lived in friendship, harmony and mutual respect. My father was smart, honest, hardworking. He tried in every possible way to instill these skills in his son, and his son succeeded in this: he grew up hardworking, reasonable and obedient.
One day my father fell ill. He felt that he would soon leave this world. He called his son and said: “My beloved son, be strong and courageously bear the fact that I am leaving this world, leaving you alone. I give you everything that I have acquired in this life through honest labor and ask you to increase this wealth. Always know the value of money, keep track of your expenses and income. Never leave your father's nest, where you grew up and were raised. Decorate and love it always. In my entire life I have never taken for myself anything I did not earn. I fed you with bread grown only by my own labor, I dressed you in honestly earned clothes. And I ask you, when leaving this world, follow the same path: never take a piece of bread or other good that you have not earned. If you break this covenant of mine, then you have betrayed me, and I will abandon you in the next world.”
The father handed over his will and died soon after. The son buried his father with all honors according to the customs of his people.
From the first day of his life without his father, the son zealously adhered to his covenant. He decorated his estate even more, carefully cultivated the land, and lovingly looked after the garden. This was paid for with a good harvest and increased wealth.
One day, the son, enthusiastically working, forgot to have lunch on time and sat down to rest near the river. He saw a beautiful large apple floating along the river past him. Wanting to satisfy his hunger, he took this apple and ate it. When a small stub remained in his hand, he remembered his father’s behest: never take anything that was not earned by one’s own labor.
The young man quickly came home, washed, dressed neatly and, holding an apple core, went upstream of the river. Having reached a beautiful garden, where the trees are bursting with ripe apples, he knocked on the gate. The owner of the garden, a noble man, opened the door and kindly invited the guy, took him into the living room and, according to custom, fed him and gave him something to drink. And only after that, according to etiquette, the young man turned to the owner. He said that he had broken his father’s commandment, accidentally ate someone else’s fruit, wanted to atone for his guilt, and handed him the rest of the apple.
The owner looked at the core and asked about the taste and shape of the apple. When the young man told about this, the owner responded kindly: “I can’t take anything from you for an apple, it’s not from my garden. Perhaps the apple is from my brother’s orchard, he lives on.” The young man thanked him, said goodbye to the owner and moved on. Soon he reached the next garden and knocked again. The same noble man came out and invited the guy home, traditionally ordered to treat him. He respectfully refused and began to carefully explain how he had violated his father’s covenant by eating an apple that he had not grown and which must have come from this garden.
The owner of the garden, after thinking for a while, said that this apple was from his garden, but would the young man be able to pay for it? The young man replied that his father left a lot of wealth and, if this wealth is not enough, then he is ready to serve him faithfully all his life in order to pay for his offense. The owner was struck by the guy’s words; he highly appreciated the young man’s pedantic devotion and honesty, his responsibility to his elders. Having weighed everything, the owner set a condition: “If you want to pay for the apple and thereby fulfill your father’s behest, then marry my daughter. But she is dumb, blind and deaf.” The young man was upset, but replied that he was firm in following his father’s instructions. Having heard the consent, the owner added that his daughter’s arms and legs were paralyzed, and asked again if he agreed to marry her. The young man thought for a long time, but replied that he agreed to all the conditions.
They celebrated the wedding and performed all the customary rituals. When the groom came to the bride, it seemed to him that he was heading towards an abyss, but, having gathered courage, he began to calm the girl down, saying that she was not to blame for her physical disabilities, and he was ready to share with her all the hardships associated with her inferiority. And when he lifted the scarf draped over the bride’s face and looked at her, he saw an unusually beautiful, graceful girl.
He was confused, deciding that there was some kind of misunderstanding, and again went to the owner of the garden. “You said that your daughter is blind, dumb, deaf, her legs and arms are paralyzed, but they brought me another, which I cannot accept, since my father’s covenant will be broken.” The owner replied that he was not violating his father’s will, since he had no claims. “And you will still be convinced of the correctness of my words about my daughter,” he said.
Then the young man returned to his bride, and they began to live happily. The girl turned out to be an excellent housewife, a devoted wife, and extremely hardworking. They had a beautiful daughter. They had everything for a happy life - both wealth and universal respect.
In his cloudless, happy life, the young man was more than once convinced of the correctness of his father-in-law's words: his beloved wife is blind to everything that she should not see, deaf to everything that she should not hear, her legs do not go where they are not supposed to, her hands fail when work is harmful.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru