There lived one king. He had an only son. The king grew old and decided to marry his son. And the son says: “Let me go around the whole kingdom, I’ll choose my own bride.” They released him. The prince looks and searches, but he will not find the bride. Only on the outskirts of one poor village, in the poorest hut, did he see a girl of unprecedented beauty under the sun and fell in love with her. The prince asks her to be his wife, and she says:
- What craft do you know?
“I don’t know any,” says the prince.
“You don’t know, but being a prince is not a craft,” said the girl. - Today you are a king, but tomorrow you are not, then how will you feed your family? Go learn some craft, then I’ll marry you, but if not, don’t show your face.
The prince became sad and did not know what craft he could learn so quickly. He came to his father and told him: this is my business. , The father of all the artisans called. The artisans came. The king of the carpenter asks:
- At what age can you teach the prince your craft?
“At five years old,” says the carpenter.
- Wow! My bride will be married at five years old, she can’t wait,” says the prince, “what use is your craft to me then?”
Some propose to teach the prince a craft at two, some at three, and some at four. Finally one driller stepped forward.
“I, too, am considered a craftsman, give me a prince, I’ll teach him my craft within 24 hours.”
The prince followed him and learned to felt felt cloaks. He later married that beauty and lived happily.
Soon the old king died. Our prince began to reign. He wanted to see his kingdom: who lives how, who rejoices over what, and who grieves about what. He dressed poorly and went.
I went to one city - the food there smells so delicious, it couldn’t be better! The prince thought: “I spend so much on cooks, but I don’t have such delicious food, I’ll go in and see what they’re cooking.”
The king went into one house, and there was food made from human flesh.
The king saw the cellar and asked:
-What do you have in that cellar?
These infidels opened the cellar and threw the king into it. There were three more people there. One said:
“I’ll be stabbed to death tomorrow.” Another said:
- Me the day after tomorrow.
“And me after the day after tomorrow,” said the third. “You’re the fattest, you’ll be stabbed to death on Sunday!”
The king was frightened, but what should he do?
They ate them, and his turn came. The king said:
“I’ll make you such a cloak that they’ll give you two thousand for it.” No one will buy it except the king's wife.
They brought him wool. The king made such a beautiful burka, woven with flowers, that you couldn’t take your eyes off it, and between the flowers he wrote: “In such and such a city, in such and such a house, in a cellar I am languishing, if you don’t come in two days, they will eat me.”
One infidel took a cloak, put it on his head and carried it. He brought it to the queen, she read what was written there, gave two thousand for the burka, and let him go. She gathered an army and followed that infidel to help her husband. She surrounded the house with troops and said:
“I’ll go inside, and when you hear the bowl breaking, come in.”
She came in, asked for food, they gave her a bowl, she hit the bowl on the ground and broke it. The whole army rushed into the cellar, caught all the infidels and strangled them. The king was released. The wife said:
- Well, if you didn’t know the craft, would it help you that you are a king?.. They would slaughter you and eat you. The husband and wife went and lived happily. After this, the king and queen took great care
about crafts.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru