In ancient times, there lived a poor widow. She was already of advanced years, and her three sons - Yarmat, Sharip and Aldar - had just grown up and had not yet learned any craft.
It was difficult for the old lady. Sometimes even a piece of bread could not be found at home, although she spun yarn from sunrise to sunset and sold it to weavers on market days.
The widow began to see poorly and could no longer spin. Then she called the eldest son of Yarmat and said:
“My son, I’m going blind, and you’re almost an adult.” Now it's your turn to feed your family. Go get some work.
The next morning the old woman took her son to the rich man Sattarbai and begged him to take Yarmat into his service.
The widow said goodbye, bowed lower and went home, leaning on her old woman’s staff.
“Well, black bone,” the bai spoke, “let’s see what you can and cannot do.”
He gave Yarmat a large sieve, in which flour is sifted, and ordered:
- Go fetch water from the river.
Yarmat ran to the river, scooped up water with a sieve, but, of course, it did not hold in the sieve. I scooped and scooped, but didn’t get any water and came home with nothing.
-Where is the water? - Bai shouted.
“Can you use what you gave me to draw water?” - said Yarmat.
“Do you still dare argue with me, black bone?” - the bai got angry, grabbed a stick and drove Yarmat away.
The old woman cried, but what can you do - you can’t argue with the gentlemen, and she decided to give her middle son, Sharip, to the bai’s service.
As soon as he came to the bai, Sattarbai ordered Sharip:
- Bring some water now! - and gave a sieve instead of a bucket, as before to Yarmat.
Only Sharip did not go to the river, but said to the bai:
-Are you kidding me? What fool carries water in a sieve? Sattarbai became furious:
- Oh, that's it, black bone, you can't argue! — he hit Sharip with a stick and drove him away. The old widow began to cry and burst into tears. But then the widow’s youngest son, Aldar, suddenly spoke:
- Let me go, mother, to Sattarbai. We need to pay him back for all his favors that he showed to our family.
“Go,” said the old woman, “maybe you, Aldar, will be luckier than your brothers.”
He came to the bai, and Sattarbai’s first order was to Aldar:
- Come on, move, black bone, bring some water now, and live!
He put a sieve into Bai Aldar’s hands and pushed him out of the house.
Aldar did not argue. I stopped on the way to the market, asked the tinsmith for a basin, put a sieve in it and brought water to Sattarbai.
“Hey,” said the Bai, “you, black bone, will make a man!”
Aldar began to work in Sattarbai’s house: cleaning the yard, feeding the cattle, plowing the land, watering the fields, and even guarding the house at night. Aldar knew no rest either day or night. And Sattarbai just walks around and shouts: “Hey, black bone, you’re loafing again!”
Just once Sattarbai and his wife and children got ready to visit. He left Aldar at home and severely punished him:
- Hey, black bone, watch the house! Yes, make sure that everything is in order: tidy up the yard, sweep so that it shines, so that the racehorse does not raise its head from the feeder, so that the gate is tightly locked, so that there is no speck of dust left in the guest room.
“Okay,” said Aldar, “I’ll do everything as you order, be calm.”
The bai returned home with his family of guests and wanted to open the gate, but that was not the case. The boy knocked and knocked, Aldar looked out from behind the fence and looked.
“Hey, black bone,” the bai shouted, “why don’t you open the gate?” Don't you see who has arrived?
“You can’t see it,” Aldar answers. “But the gates can’t be opened now.”
-What are you talking about, fool? Why can't the gate be opened?
- Yes, you ordered them to be tightly closed so that no one could get through. So I built a new brick wall behind the gate.
There’s no escape, the bai had to remain silent. Sattarbai climbed over the fence and gasped: the whole ground was watered with linseed oil! How much oil the bai had in his pantry, Aldar poured every last drop into the yard.
“Wow, what a loss!” the bai shouted. “Only a madman could destroy so much good.”
- I carried out your instructions, sir. You ordered me to make the yard sparkle. So he shines.
There’s nothing to be done, the boy had to remain silent.
Suddenly he sees that his favorite racehorse’s muzzle is tied to a feeding trough. Sattarbai howled with rage:
- What have you done?
- Sir, you ordered that the horse not raise its head from the feeder.
There’s no escape, so the boy had to remain silent again.
He went into the guest room and almost lost his mind from grief: it turns out that Aldar, so as not to leave a speck of dust on the walls, tore off all the expensive alabaster plaster with fine carvings.
Sattarbai groaned, grabbed his head and, without saying a word to Aldar, ran away to the women's half of the house.
Bai came to his wife and said:
“It’s bad, wife, this farmhand, black bone, is a real madman.” Pack your things, you'll have to run, otherwise he won't ruin us.
They opened the large leather yachts and put all the goods in them, and then went out stealthily into the yard to harness the horse to the cart.
This is all Aldar needed. He slowly climbed into the largest yacht and hid in it.
Bai and his wife loaded their things, sat on the cart and left, thinking that Aldar was sleeping.
Bai kept urging his horse on and boasting:
- Cunning Aldar, and I’m more cunning! All night and day the bai drove his horse and only in the evening he stopped for the night on the river bank. Then the bai's wife began to groan and moan:
- At least there was a servant, or else light a fire and cook dinner.
“Please, please, dear owners,” said Aldar, getting out of the yacht.
Bai and his wife just gaped. They sit and are silent.
After dinner, the bai and his wife pretended to be asleep. At midnight they began to conspire:
“As soon as Aldar, the black bone, falls asleep, we’ll push him into the water.”
Aldar heard everything and, as soon as the bai and his wife dozed off, he quietly got up, put on the bai's robe, tied his head with the bai's turban and carefully woke up the bai's wife.
“It’s time to drown Aldar,” Aldar whispered in the voice of a bai.
The sleepy wife did not understand anything and helped Aldar push her husband into the water.
The next morning the bai's wife woke up and saw: Aldar walking near the cart.
- Hey, black bone, did you get out from the bottom of the river? We drowned you. Then Aldar said:
“You, madam, did not throw me into the river, but with your own hands you drowned your husband, Sattarbai.” Now I have repaid him for all his favors.
Aldar turned and went his way.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru