Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was an old man and an old woman. They had a son Aminbek. His parents wanted to make Aminbek a rich merchant. One day they gave their son a hundred rubles and told him to go learn to trade. Aminbek did not want to be a merchant, but wanted to gain knowledge in science and art.
Aminbek came to one city, spent the night in a visiting house, and the next morning went out into the street.
Then he heard a herald passing by proclaiming:
“Whoever wants to learn to write well should go to such and such a person!”
Aminbek immediately went to this man and agreed for one hundred rubles to learn writing from him for a year.
He learned to write so skillfully that he could make his handwriting look like the handwriting of any person. When a year had passed, Aminbek returned to his parents. The parents were very upset that their son had not yet learned to trade.
The old man and the old woman gave him a hundred rubles and sent him off again: they told him to learn to trade with this money. Aminbek went to one city, spent the night there, and the next morning he went out into the street. Then he met a herald who shouted:
- Anyone who wants to learn how to play sartash (checkers), let him go to such and such a person!
Aminbek turned to this man, paid one hundred rubles and began to learn the game of sartash from him. And he learned to play so well that he began to beat the best players.
A year passed, and Aminbek went home.
His parents scolded him for wasting money and learning trivial things. Then they gave him another hundred rubles and told him to learn to trade with this money.
As before, Aminbek arrived in one city in the evening, spent the night, and in the morning went out into the street and met a herald who shouted:
“Whoever wants to learn to play the violin should go to such and such a person!”
Aminbek went to this man, paid him one hundred rubles and began to learn to play the violin. A year passed, and he learned to play so well that, perhaps, there was no other like him in the whole world. After the training, Aminbek went home.
The old man and the old woman cruelly scolded him for being busy with trifles again. They felt ashamed in front of their fellow villagers that they had such a disobedient son; they sold the house and all their belongings and decided to move to another place. They reached one city, got hungry on the way and decided to buy bread. But they had no money.
They were angry with Aminbek.
“Because of you we left the village, because of you we are sitting without money,” the old men grumbled at Aminbek and sold him to one caravan owner.
Once this caravan passed through waterless places, everyone began to be tormented by thirst. People lowered the bucket into the well, but it could not reach the water. Then the owner of the caravan announced:
- One of us needs to go down into the well and get water at any cost, otherwise we will die of thirst.
The owner of the caravan looked at Aminbek and said:
- Come on, boy, come down!
Aminbek was tied with a rope and lowered into the well. He looked around: there was no water in the well. But in one corner lay a whole heap of gold. Aminbek filled the deflated bucket with gold and shouted to pull it. The people above saw the gold, were very happy and immediately lowered the bucket back down. Aminbek again filled it with gold. And so he sent up forty buckets of gold. After that, he shouted for him to be pulled out. People began to lift him, and then they stopped and began to reason: “But if he comes out of the well, he can take over all the gold.”
Reasoning this way, the greedy traders cut the rope and went on their way.
Aminbek fell to the bottom of the well with a roar. He rose to his feet, saw that the rope had been cut, and wept bitterly. But then I decided that tears would not help my grief. He began to look around and found the end of some rope. When he pulled it, the door opened, and behind it Aminbek saw a deya (monster, evil spirit). This guy could barely sit from weakness. Aminbek timidly approached him and sat down. After sitting for a while, he saw a violin hanging. Aminbek was delighted. He made signs to ask the dey for permission to take the violin.
Deyu allowed it, and then Aminbek took the violin, tuned it and played so well that Deyu became emotional and began to recover from this. So he listened to the game until he completely recovered.
Then the deyu asked Aminbek:
- Eget, how did you get here?
Aminbek told him how it happened. Deyu was not angry with him and said:
- Well, hey, because you healed me with your game, I’ll do you a favor.
Having said this, he picked up Aminbek and flew with him to the surface of the earth.
It turned out that the donkey on which Aminbek had previously ridden had been left at the well. Deyu, picking up the donkey, took Aminbek and his donkey to the caravan’s resting place, and he himself went back.
The owner of the caravan, when he saw Aminbek safe and sound, immediately wrote a letter and handed it to Aminbek. He ordered him to go ahead with the letter and said that he wanted to please his wife with the news of his imminent return.
Aminbek set off and on the way decided to see what was written in the letter. And there it was written:
“Kill the boy who delivers this letter and bury it in a place where people won’t see it.”
Aminbek tore up this letter and wrote in the same handwriting as the owner of the caravan:
“I'll be back soon. The boy who delivers this letter should be sheltered in our house, fed and clothed.”
With this letter he came to the wife of the owner of the caravan, and the caravan went on for another five days.
The caravan owner's wife read the letter and received the boy kindly. At night, when all the inhabitants of the city had gone to bed, a light was burning in the middle of the city in one large house.
“Why, when all the people are sleeping, is there a fire over there?” Aminbek asked the hostess.
— The ruler of the city lives there. He loves to play sartash and probably plays this game. He promises to give up his place to the one who beats him.
Aminbek went to the ruler of the city. The city ruler asked him:
- Hey, eget, why did you come here? Aminbek answered him:
- I heard that you play sartash and beat everyone. I want to play sartash with you.
“Okay,” said the ruler of the city. “If you, boy, dared to play sartash with me, then I have a condition: if you win, you will rule the city instead of me; If you lose, I'll cut off your head.
And so the ruler of the city sat down to play with Aminbek. He moved his checkers back and forth and locked Aminbek's checker.
“We will play until one of us wins three times in a row,” said the city ruler.
They started playing a second time, and the ruler of the city won again. He told Aminbek:
- Hey, boy, don’t ruin your head, leave before it’s too late!
Aminbek did not listen, and they began to play for the third time.
Aminbek beat the city ruler three times in a row. After this, the city ruler said:
“I’ve become old, I can’t rule the city anymore.” I was looking for a person with knowledge and intelligence instead of myself. So he was found.
Meanwhile, Aminbek’s former owner, the owner of the caravan, returned to the city.
- Well, wife, what did you do with my messenger? The wife replied:
“As you told me, I took him into our house, dressed him, shod him, fed him.”
- Oh, you stupid woman! Is this what I told you to do? Come on, give me the letter, I’ll show you what was written there!” the husband shouted.
When his wife handed him the letter, he saw what was written there.
“I'll be back soon. The boy who delivers this letter should be sheltered in our house, fed and clothed.”
The caravan owner was surprised and asked:
-Where is he now? His wife answered him:
“He has now become the ruler of our city.” The owner of the caravan heard this and was even more surprised.
Soon the boy's poor parents wandered into this city.
They saw their son and were happy. Now they repented that it was in vain to force their son to learn to trade. Their son wanted to gain knowledge and achieved this.
Moreover, when he became the ruler of the city, he opened schools for all children. There they were taught by the wisest scientists and skilled craftsmen. While Aminbek was the head of the city, many young men learned various sciences and crafts. And their fame spread throughout the whole earth.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru