Many, many years ago there lived a rich man in China. It has long been known that all rich people are greedy and evil, but this rich man was so greedy, so evil that there was no one worse than him in China. This rich man's wife was just as evil and greedy. And if a beggar approached the gate of their house, they would unleash a chained dog to meet him.
And so these people bought themselves a slave. They were looking, of course, for the cheapest slave, and the cheapest one turned out to be the ugliest girl. The evil rich people called their maid a monkey.
Every now and then in the house I heard: “Monkey, take it away!” “Monkey, bring it!” “Monkey, run!” “Monkey, give it!”
And if the girl was not agile enough, the owners beat her with sticks and starved her.
One day, when the rich people went on a visit, a poor man approached their house. He raised his hands to the sky and groaned: “I’m dying of hunger.” Save me!
The maid heard a groan and let the beggar into the house.
She had already collected a small bag of rice for a long time. She handed the bag to the poor man and said: “I collected this rice grain by grain in the straw with which I heat the stove.” But if the owner finds out that I gave you alms, he will beat us both. Please, leave quickly.
The beggar quickly hid the rice in his bag and, saying goodbye to the kind slave, handed her a small pink scarf. “Wipe your face with this scarf at dawn,” he said and left the fanza.
But at this time the rich people returned from visiting. Seeing the beggar, the owner began to shout at the maid: “How dare you invite beggars to our house, you dirty monkey!” I will beat both you and this ragamuffin!
And the rich man turned around to grab the poor man, but the beggar disappeared somewhere. No one noticed when he managed to escape. The rich miser became even more angry. He grabbed the whip with which he punished the chain dogs and began to whip the slave. In vain the girl begged for mercy. The rich man beat her mercilessly.
Only at dawn the unfortunate girl came to her senses. She remembered the handkerchief that the poor man had given her, and wiped her face with it.
For three days in a row she wiped her ugly face with a pink handkerchief.
And on the fourth day, when the slave approached the mirror in the morning, she involuntarily screamed: a real beauty was looking at her from the mirror. The poor man's pink scarf performed a miracle: the ugly girl turned into an extraordinary beauty.
When the owner and his wife saw their slave, they could not recover from anger and envy for a long time. “Tell us your secret and you will get freedom,” said the cunning rich man.
Oh, how the slave’s heart began to beat! She was ready to give everything for freedom. What could be more desirable than freedom! And she obediently handed her pink handkerchief to her tormentors, telling them how to use it.
That's all the rich people wanted. They sent the slave to the kitchen, and to prevent her from running away, they unleashed ferocious dogs.
At dawn, the rich man and his wife wiped their faces with a pink handkerchief and fell fast asleep. They opened their eyes when the sun was already high, and, looking at each other, rushed to the mirror with a roar. Two ugly hairy monkeys were reflected in the mirror.
- The slave deceived us! - the rich man yelled. - Let's run to the kitchen: I'll tear it apart! I'll throw her to the dogs!
And both monkeys rushed to the kitchen. But as soon as the dogs saw the monkeys, they attacked them with loud barking and growling. In fear, the monkeys jumped out the window and jumped over the fence of their house. Then all the dogs that were running along the street, barking, chased after these monkeys. The rich people rushed forward in horror, seeing nothing in front of them. The barking of the dogs had long since ceased, and they kept running and running, fleeing a terrible death.
Finally they found themselves in a dense forest, among a flock of other monkeys. Here they had to stay until the end of their days.
You, of course, ask: what happened to the slave?
Everything worked out as well as possible. The girl married a kind, hardworking peasant and lived happily with him until she was very old.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru