There lived a rich merchant in one city. He had a son, a sensible, intelligent boy, and he really wanted to study. Everything would be fine, but here’s the problem: the merchant was greedy and stubborn. He did not want his son to study science; he did not allow him to read, write, or play the pipe. As soon as he sees his son with a book, he shouts:
- A book won’t feed you, son! And the pipe will not give you wealth! You need to work, work, work, honey. Do you understand or not?
So he pestered the boy - the rich man’s money has obscured the world, apparently! I didn’t let my son study, and that’s all!
At that time, a fair opened nearby. “Let the son take care of business,” the merchant reasoned and sent the guy to the fair, gave him all sorts of instructions and ordered him to purchase goods. Well, the son did not engage in trade, he went straight to the teacher, and wanted to learn writing. The boy was smart, diligent and quickly comprehended all the wisdom. He returned home, albeit empty-handed, but smarter than he left. The father got angry:
-Where have you been walking for so long? Why did you stay late? Where are the goods? Maybe, having climbed into foreign lands, you decided to shake out your father’s purse?
“I didn’t bring goods, father,” the son answered him, “but I bought intelligence and useful knowledge.” God willing, I will then buy everything you want!
- What a cunning one! - the father grinned. —Have you heard the proverb: “Before the grass grows, a cold horse has time to die”? You spent so much money on empty ideas and are trying to leave again? No, my dear, now I know what kind of earner you are!
A year passed and the fair opened again. Again the merchant gave his son a lot of money and equipped him for the journey - maybe, he thinks, he will improve! And so that the guy didn’t return empty-handed, I read him a stern instruction at parting. He threatened him, threatened him. It's just all in vain. The merchant's son reached the fair, but did not look at the goods. He immediately found wandering musicians and went to study with them. He studied hard and soon surpassed his teachers. And then he returned home empty-handed. When the father saw what his son had done, he shook all over, turned green with anger, and almost died. He was screaming, screaming, cursing, cursing! Yes, thank you, my wife calmed down a little, she felt sorry for her son!
Another year has passed and the fair has reopened. The guy asks his father to send him for goods. And if, they say, he wastes the money, let his father sell him himself to cover the losses. Well, the mother began to ask: let him go, hubby.
- Here we are! - answered the merchant. - Well, okay, I’ll trust him with the money, but just, son, hold on! If you waste it, I’ll really sell you, remember! Don't rely on the fact that you are my only one. A son is dear, but money is dearer! And you, wife, don’t complain then, don’t ask for him, don’t cry and don’t blame me!
- Give him the money, master, and then do whatever you want! - answered the mother.
The merchant took out the money, counted it out, gave it to his son, and he went to the fair. The little guy began to walk around the shopping aisles, asking prices for goods, and when he was tired, he went to a coffee shop. Looks: people are playing cards for money! He came closer, and how he wanted to learn! He sat down at the table and started playing. He lost everything, but he became a real player and now he would beat anyone if he had money left.
He learned all the intricacies of the card game, and got ready to go home. When he came to his father without goods, without money, the merchant became furious and became angrier than a poisonous snake: if a viper had bitten him at that hour, he would have been poisoned himself. And the merchant shouted and cursed, even cried; The son, they say, let his father’s wealth go to the wind. And then he grabbed his son by the hand and took him to the market to sell. The wife asked, begged, shed bitter tears: have mercy, they say, what people will say, you are selling your flesh and blood! The merchant did not listen to his wife or son, and did not believe his promises to earn a hundred times more money than he spent. He brought his son to the market and began shouting:
- Hey, people! My son squandered a lot of money, I’m selling him for this. How much money he took from me is how much I want to take for him. Buy it if you want!
And the son also started screaming:
- Hey, people! It’s true that my father, angry, wants to sell me, his son! Just remember: whoever buys me will repent. And whoever doesn’t buy will repent!
A lot of people bargained with the merchant, but when they hear the guy shouting: “Whoever buys me will repent!” - step aside. That would have been the end of the matter, but some capital merchant arrived at the market. He heard: “Whoever buys me will repent,” he got angry and immediately approached the boy’s father and began counting out the money. “Hey, watch out, merchant, you will repent!” - the guy threatened him. But the merchant was rich and arrogant: he was the king’s right hand, so he put on airs. “I’ll show you how I will repent! You’ll be my goose chaser!” - he answered with a grin and immediately called the servant, ordered to take the guy to the inn where visiting people live, and lock him in a closet. Well, in the evening he sat down at the table at that inn and wrote a letter to his dear wife: “So and so, wife, here at the market, I bought a young guy for such and such a price. I’m sending him to you - let him work. Give him bread once a day, put him in the poultry house, along with the geese. Let him go after the birds. Yes, tell him to clean out the cesspool, look after the garbage dump - in a word, everywhere Send him where the work is dirty, difficult and disgusting. By the way, tell the tsar: I’ll come in a month with a cannon salute.”
He then put the boy on the ship, and handed the letter to the chief shipowner - the owner. I asked him to keep an eye on the guy and deliver a message to his wife.
There were many people on the ship. The journey by sea is slow, but there is no work to do! They started playing cards, at first without money, but then they got tired of it. We agreed: let everyone bet at least a little, well, let’s say, five pairs. And then we got tired of it, let’s bet more and more. After all, the card game is a sticky thing! Once a person sits down to play cards, it’s hard to leave behind. The owner of the ship also sat down to play. He was an inept player, they robbed him like a child, he quickly lost everything he had, he even lost his ship. What to do here! A sold merchant’s son approached him and whispered: “Give me some money, maybe I’ll win back at least part of your fortune!” The shipbuilder believed and gave. The guy sat down to play and at some hour he cleaned out everyone, received a considerable winning and gave it to the shipowner. “Take it,” he says, and as a reward give me the letter that my master gave you. I want to see what he writes. I’ll read it and return it to you.”
The shipowner, overwhelmed with joy, willingly handed him the letter. The guy immediately printed it out, read it, took the papers and wrote in the same handwriting: “Be healthy, dear hostess! This letter will be brought to you by a young guy, the richest and most intelligent of all whom I knew in the new city. I want him to be our son-in-law. If he appears, dress him in the best dress, give him my precious ring, call all the priests and the ruler, and immediately let him go the guy down the aisle with our daughter. And when I come back, we’ll have a feast at the wedding, and we’ll celebrate like nothing the Tsar could ever dream of. Let both the old and the young wonder - where did they find such a reasonable guy! Look, wife, do everything as I command, and don’t deviate from my will in any way. If the guy gets offended, how will you justify it?” He wrote a letter, folded it in exactly the same way as the first, sealed it and immediately returned it to the shipowner.
Well, they sailed to the capital city. The shipowner took the guy with him and took him, as agreed, to the merchant’s wife. She read the letter - she blinked, shed a tear, gasped, and was unspeakably surprised. Why, a wife must obey her husband! Immediately they dressed the daughter and the guy in a luxurious dress, they were married as expected, and the hostess handed her son-in-law all the keys to the barns, and warehouses, and to all the chests. He became the real master of the house.
One morning a boy was sitting by the window. Lo and behold, a window opened in the royal palace. At the window is the king himself, in a gold-woven outfit, with a crown on top of his head, and his face is sad, quietly singing a mournful song. “Should I play along with him on the violin?” the boy suddenly thought. “Let him listen and marvel!” The way he ran his bow across the strings was amazing! - everyone who walked past came back, opened their mouths and listened. And the king was completely stunned. As soon as the guy finished playing, the king called him to himself: “I’ve never heard such a game, play at least a little more!” I got so carried away that I forgot all my royal affairs; I would be ready to listen from morning to evening. And he fell in love with the musician so much that he made him the first person in the whole state. The guy gained great power, he even canceled executions and saved convicts from the noose. As soon as he asks, the king will immediately have mercy. That's how much the king loved him!
And the rich man who bought the guy went home a month later. Before leaving, he wrote a letter to his wife and the Tsar so that they would greet him as expected. He had a very high opinion of himself, he boasted very much: “I am the most important nobleman under the Tsar, and when I return home, cannons from the fortress fire in my honor.”
- Well, dear friend, your father-in-law is coming! - the king says to the boy. “He writes that I should fire cannons in his honor.” It’s true, I don’t argue, he was my first close friend, but now it’s not him, but you who have become the first!.. What should I do, huh?
- Sovereign! - the guy answered him. - Prove to me that I am dearer to you than everyone else, meet him without cannon fire!
- Welcome! So it will be! - answered the king.
Well, soon the rich man arrived on his own ship. Waiting for fireworks, but there are none! The merchant realized that the king did not want to respect him, and became angry (he was too picky!). As soon as he got off the ship, he immediately went to the palace to tell about his grievance. He came to the king, but he didn’t even invite him to sit down: his new favorite was sitting next to him, and the king wanted to please him - to show that the merchant was now his, the sovereign, like last year’s snow. The rich man realized that the king did not want to distinguish him, bowed and sadly trudged home. “What happened?” he thought. “What kind of guy was sitting next to the sovereign? It’s wonderful: he looks like a twin to that squandered guy whom I bought at the market a month ago! If he really is, then it’s just miracles, some kind of fairy tale! But why didn’t the king want to distinguish me, didn’t fire a cannon in my honor and didn’t put me next to him? So, all this is the machinations of that damned guy. After all, it was not for nothing that he said then, at the market: “Whoever buys me will repent!” So I repent. But how could he become friends with the king in such a short time? When I get home, I’ll find out everything!”
Thinking, the merchant walked home. As soon as he opened the gate, his wife and daughter met him. The daughter, as expected, bowed low to her father. The merchant sees that his daughter is dressed like a husband's wife. He was surprised, but then he guessed: again, it’s true, the machinations of the damned weasel.
- Come here, dear wife! - said the merchant to his wife. - Why did you dress your daughter in such a dress? Who is that dog that deceived you and disgraced me, God forbid?!
- Well, what do I have to do with it? - the wife was surprised. - What bad did I do? I can't understand it! Here is your letter... After all, you yourself sent me the boy and the letter with the shipmaster. As you ordered, so I did. Read it and you will be convinced that I carried out all your orders exactly!
He took the rich man’s letter, read it, and the sky seemed like a sheepskin to him. How did this happen? After all, he ordered the guy to be sent to graze the geese, but it turned out that he snuck in as his son-in-law! And the letter!.. True, the handwriting is very similar, but he wrote something completely different!
The merchant pondered for three hours, and then - what to do! - admitted that the boy said correctly: “Whoever buys me will repent. And whoever doesn’t buy me will repent!”
“That’s not at all what I wrote to you, little wife: I didn’t order my daughter to be given away to a rogue, but I ordered you to send his flock of geese to graze and do all sorts of menial work!” Yes, apparently, it’s not in vain that old people repeat: “I made a calculation at home, but in the market it was a miscalculation. You make one wish, but it doesn’t work out!” Well, I’ll only say one thing to my uninvited son-in-law: “Well done, since you managed to turn a disastrous business to your advantage.” You know, wife, when I bought him, he told me: “Whoever buys me will repent. And whoever doesn’t buy me will repent!” Well, I bought it out of stubbornness: we’ll see how your threat comes true. So I saw it! As he said, so it happened. I repent that I bought him and that he became our son-in-law, but I don’t repent: the guy is too smart. And he sits next to the king, and in a short time he earned more honor than I did in my entire life. Well, daughter, go, kiss me on the cheek, and then kiss my hand, as usual, so that I can give you my father’s blessing. And let's have a wedding feast today, so that the smoke will stand like a rocker.
Then the son-in-law returned from the royal palace. When the rich man saw him, he jumped up, ran up to him, hugged him, kissed him on the forehead, accepted him with honor and did not utter a word of reproach. Well, the son-in-law remained silent, did not open up, as he fooled everyone around his finger.
The guy immediately sent a messenger for his father and mother, and said to his father-in-law:
“When my parents arrive, then we’ll have a wedding!”
The parents heard the unexpected news, immediately got ready for the journey and soon arrived.
- Well, do you see, father? I got a lot more money than I spent on my studies!
“I see, I see, son,” and the father shed tears. - Long life to you and great happiness! Forgive me!
“Let’s forget the old things,” answered the son. - I'm not angry! I know: every cloud has a silver lining. What you cry about today, you rejoice about tomorrow.
And so they invited guests from everywhere and had a merry wedding. For a whole month they feasted like a king. And then they began to live in honor, in contentment and glory. They say they still live somewhere. But people just can’t find that country. They walk, search, get lost, but don’t know the way.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru