In ancient times, when the vizier was a clawed tiger, and the yasaul was a toothy wolf, one day in the harsh winter, trumpets were blown and drums were beaten on the streets of Bukhara.
The heralds shouted:
“Let not those who have ears say that they did not hear.” The great padishah announces: whoever of his subjects spends naked on the roof of the palace tonight, the padishah will make him his son-in-law and give him half of the blessed kingdom.
Nasreddin Apandi heard the call of the heralds and thought:
“I live hungry and cold. I’ll go to the roof of the padishah’s palace and spend the night in the cold. Either I will find death from the cold, or I will find my happiness.”
Apandi went to the palace.
“O owner of power, I agree to spend the night naked on the roof of the palace.”
Seeing Apandi, the padishah was delighted. He was bored and wanted to have fun and have fun.
“Hey, servants,” the padishah shouted, “here is a fool of fools, undress him and take him upstairs to the roof, let the frost chill him to the bones.”
“O ruler of the world, just order your servants to bring a large stone to the roof.”
The padishah was surprised:
- Why do you need a stone, fool?
- O master of wisdom, this is my secret. But I can’t climb onto the roof without a stone.
The padishah agreed:
- Do as you please. You will sit naked on the roof all night. And now scream, don’t scream, but I won’t let you go from there until the morning. You will die, you will die, you will survive, you will remain alive.
- Oh the limit of kindness, I agree.
At a sign from the padishah, the servants grabbed Apandi, tore off his clothes and took him naked to the roof of the palace. Now they brought there a huge stone the size of a ram.
“Tomorrow we will come for your lifeless body,” said the padishah’s servants and, taking the ladder, they left.
It was very cold, there was a severe frost, but Apandi did not sit still, but all night he moved the stone in one direction and then in the other. He worked so diligently that he became hot and did not even feel the frost.
In the morning, dressed in a fur coat, the padishah himself, accompanied by nobles, came to look at the frozen fool.
The padishah was surprised; sees Apandi alive and well, runs back and forth on the roof and says:
- Wow, it's hot! Wow, it's hot!
The servants brought clothes. Apandi got dressed and went to the palace. He appeared to the padishah and bowed:
“O pillar of justice,” said Apandi, “now that I spent the night naked in the cold, give me your daughter and half of the kingdom.”
Who would have thought that a person could spend a whole night naked in such cold weather and still survive? The padishah just wanted to have fun, but here he had to fulfill his padishah’s word - to give his daughter and half his kingdom to some poor man.
The padishah decided to cheat:
“Eh, friend, did you see anything at night?” he asked.
“I saw,” answered Apandi, “I saw the moon.”
- Yeah, so you were warmed by the light of the moon. That's why you were hot, sly one. You didn't fulfill my condition. Get out. Hey, servants, drive the deceiver out of the palace.
By order of the padishah, the servants drove Apandi away, and even beat him with sticks.
Apandi was afraid to live in the city where such an unjust padishah was, so he went further into the desert and settled near a well.
Once, on a hot summer day, the padishah and the vizier were hunting fleet-footed gazelles in that desert. The hunters galloped back and forth all day, finally became exhausted and, suffering from thirst, began to look for a well where they could drink.
They are driving through the desert and see a hut standing.
“Hey, master,” said the padishah, “receive the guests.” Apandi came out to meet the padishah and bowed low.
- Please, stronghold of justice, everything we have is at your service.
“Water,” said the padishah, “I’m dying of thirst.”
- Now, O ruler of the universe!
Having escorted the padishah and the vizier to the hut, Apandi ran to the well. He quickly took off the lasso and bucket, buried it in the sand at a distance, and sat down by the well and waited.
The padishah sits for half an hour, sits for an hour. Apandi is not there.
“Curse!” says the padishah, almost losing consciousness. “Where is this fool with his water?”
He sent his vizier to look for Apandi.
The vizier soon returned and said:
“Sir, this fool demands that you go to the well yourself.”
The padishah was outraged by the insolence of his insignificant subject, but nothing could be done, he got up and went to the well.
-Where is the water? - asked Padishah Apandi. - Let me get drunk.
“Look down, padishah,” and Apandi pointed his finger down into the well.
The padishah looked and saw water far below.
- Fool, I can’t quench my thirst with the sparkle of water! - the padishah shouted.
“O pole of wisdom, lord of the padishah,” said Apandi, “if I could warm myself in the bitter cold with the radiance of the moon, then why can’t you quench your thirst with the sparkle of water?”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru