There once lived a man named Ambartsum. He was a very rich merchant: he had shops in the market and earned a lot of money. Ambartsum had a wife and two children - a son and a daughter, unusually beautiful.
The merchant Ambartsum also had a named brother, also a merchant, named Petros, who lived in Istanbul. Ambartsum lived happily with his family, traveled to Istanbul, traded, and brought goods from there. He gave his children a good education and invited teachers to join them. But it must be said that his children - brother and sister - loved each other so much that they could not live without the other for even an hour.
But one day a misfortune happened - the merchant’s wife died. He was very sad, went to bed out of grief and felt that his last hour was coming. He called his children and said: “Children, always be friendly and devoted to each other.” My son, accept trade from me, do not be lazy, otherwise you will not save your wealth and in a year you will become a beggar. Load the camel caravan with goods and go to the city of Istanbul to my named brother Petros. He will help you in trading.
The son and daughter buried their father with all honors and distributed a lot of money to the poor. The time has come for them to part, to fulfill their father’s behest - to go to their brother with goods in the city of Istanbul. The sister cried for a long time, she didn’t want to let go of her beloved brother. “What can you do,” her brother tells her. “I myself am bitter about leaving you alone.” You know what? Let's order our portraits from a painter. I'll leave mine for you, and I'll take yours with me. As soon as I feel sad, I will start talking to your portrait.
Then the brother hired an old woman to live with his sister and help her around the house. He tenderly said goodbye to his sister and, having loaded the camels, set off for Istanbul. How much or how much time has passed, it’s better for him to know, he arrived at the place. He found the merchant Petros, told him about the death of his parents and, on behalf of his late father, asked for help and assistance.
The merchant Petros accepted him as his own son, fed him, gave him something to drink, helped him sell his goods, and then took him to a reception with the king. When the king's son saw the son of the merchant Ambartsum, he wanted to make friends with him. Every day he began to follow him into the shop of the merchant Petros, invite him to his place, feed him and give him water, and spend whole days in his company.
A whole month passed like this. One day, the son of the merchant Ambartsum says to Petros: “Uncle, it’s inconvenient for me, I spend every day with the king’s son, we should invite him too.” “Well,” says Petros, “we’ll prepare a treat.” Not another day did the merchant Petros cover the ground from the royal palace to his house with luxurious carpets so that the royal son could come to them, and prepared a luxurious feast.
The son of the merchant Ambartsum came to the king's son and began to ask him to go visit him. “I will gladly,” says the prince, “I’ll just go to my father and mother and ask their permission.” The king answered his son: “Okay, go, just take the vizier with you and don’t stay there overnight.” The king's son went to visit Petros's house, feasted there all day, and in the evening he began to get ready to go home. The son of the merchant Ambartsum began to beg, beg, and persuade him to stay the night. And in the end he agreed. The servants brought a luxurious bed, and everyone went to bed, but did not immediately fall asleep: the prince was worried that the king would be angry with him; the vizier ate too much and tossed and turned from side to side; and the son of the merchant Ambartsum could not sleep because he was overcome by an unbearable longing for his beloved sister.
He took out her portrait, illuminated it with a candle and began to talk quietly to the portrait. The king's son saw the girl's portrait and immediately fell in love with her - she was so beautiful! The vizier also saw the portrait and also could not take his eyes off it. The next morning the prince got up, sad and gloomy, sat down at the table, but didn’t touch anything. “Why are you so sad?” - the son of the merchant Ambartsum asked him. - Why don’t you want to try the food? Are you sick? “No, I’m healthy,” the prince answers. “And I’m sad because you call me a friend, but you keep your secrets from me.” “I don’t have secrets from you, why do you offend me?” — the merchant’s son answers. “No, there is,” says the prince. “You have a bride, and you hid it from me.” “I don’t have a bride,” the merchant’s son was surprised. “And the portrait?” “Yes, it’s a portrait of my sister!”
He took out the portrait, showed it to the guests, and then the prince and the vizier completely lost their heads. The prince returned to the palace not himself, gloomy, gloomy, and soon fell ill from melancholy. Not a single doctor, not a single healer could help him. “Tell me, what’s wrong with you?” - the king and queen are asking. “Woo the daughter of the merchant Ambartsum for me,” says the prince. - Otherwise I’ll die. - How? - The king and queen were amazed. “Are there no royal daughters in the world, that you want to marry the daughter of a simple merchant?” “I don’t need royal daughters.” Either I will marry the daughter of the merchant Ambartsum, or I will not live in the world.
Nothing to do. The king sent for the merchant Petros and the son of the merchant Ambartsum and wooed his sister to marry his son. “Give her in marriage to my son, because he cannot live without her,” the king asked. They, of course, happily agreed. “Long live to you for many years, king,” says the merchant Petros. - Take this girl as your daughter-in-law, you won’t regret it. She is smart, educated, and modest.
The heralds announce the engagement of the king's son to the merchant's daughter, and the king throws an unprecedented feast. The vizier learned about this engagement and began to think about how he could upset this wedding and marry the daughter of the merchant Ambartsum himself. And he planned an evil deed. He came to the king and said: “Long live to you for many years, king.” Do you know that you are wooing a girl of bad behavior for your son? - I will cut off your heads for deceiving me! The daughter of the merchant Ambartsum is a girl of bad behavior.
The brother was amazed at such slander against his sister and said: “Long live to you for many years, king.” Give us time. Let your vizier prove that my sister behaves badly, or I will prove that she is an exemplary girl. And when you receive evidence, then decide who to execute - my uncle and I or this traitor vizier.
The king agreed. The insidious vizier immediately ran to the scribe and ordered him a false letter, as if written by a brother to his sister, in which the brother allegedly asked to receive the vizier into the house as a dear guest. Taking this letter, the vizier went to the city where the girl lived; found out where the house of the merchant Ambartsum was located and gave the servants a letter and a request to accept it. The girl read the letter and said to the servants: “Return this letter to the one from whom you took it, and tell him that I will order him to be hacked to death if he dares to cross the threshold of my house.” This letter is fake, it was not written by my brother.
No wonder my father taught me? Somehow I’ll figure out who wrote, a brother or a stranger. The enraged vizier decided not to retreat. He waylaid the old woman who lived with the girl, and with threats and bribery he forced her to quietly steal the girl’s ring. And so, when the girl began to wash her hair and took her ring off her finger, the old woman imperceptibly pulled it off and then handed it to the vizier, and he, without wasting a minute, galloped to Istanbul.
Only the next day the girl discovered that she was missing. She suspected the old woman, but she did not confess. Meanwhile, the vizier had already galloped to Istanbul. “Long live to you for many years, king!” - he shouted, running into the palace. - Here is the ring of that girl that you got your son to marry! If a girl behaves exemplary, will she accept a strange man in the house, will she give him her ring? The king called the merchant Petros and the son of the merchant Ambartsum and said to them: “Well, whose ring is this?” “This is my sister’s ring,” admitted the son of the merchant Ambartsum. And I thought: “Has my sister really become bad in just a month? It's hard to believe! But the ring is hers!”
He asked the king for five more days, dressed in black clothes, got into a black carriage and went to his sister. He got out of the carriage near his house, and when his sister approached him, he spat in her face, turned around and drove away. The sister learned from the people what trouble had befallen her brother, how the king had wooed her, and how vilely the royal vizier had slandered her.
She went around all the respected houses in the city, and the townspeople wrote to her and signed, all of them, the following paper: “This girl is of exemplary behavior, there is no cleaner and kinder person in the world.” “Drive the horses as quickly as possible,” she told the driver. “I’ll pay you whatever you ask.” She reached Istanbul in the evening. I went into the church where the evening service was going on. He sees one woman praying and crying bitterly. “What are you crying about?” - she asked the woman. “I’m crying because tomorrow my husband, the merchant Petros, and his young friend, the son of the merchant Ambartsum, are to be executed because of one unscrupulous girl.” “Listen, woman,” the girl tells her. “I don’t have any friends in this city, let me spend the night.” “Let’s go,” says the woman. - I don't care. In the morning the zurna sounded. The executioner is already sharpening his axe. Crying arose in the house of Petros-aga. “Don’t cry,” the girl reassures his wife. - God is merciful. The daughter of the merchant Ambartsum put on a thick veil and went to the king. “What do you need?” - the king asked her. - Long live you, king, - the girl says to him with a bow. - Postpone the execution for a few minutes and listen to me.
The king waved his handkerchief at the executioner. The girl put the ring in front of him and said to the king: “Tsar, your vizier stole the ring from me.” Here's his pair. Tell him to give it to him. The vizier exclaims indignantly: “This is the first time I’ve seen this girl!” “Oh, so!” Did you hear that, king? And did your people hear it too? So how can you judge me, since you don’t even know me by sight! I am the sister of this unfortunate man whom you are about to execute. And here is a letter from respected people of our city. Then the daughter of the merchant Ambartsum told about everything: how the vizier sent her a false letter, how he bribed the old woman and how, having stolen the ring, he slandered her before the king.
The king immediately ordered the release of the unfortunates, and the execution of the vile vizier in their place. For forty days and forty nights they celebrated the magnificent wedding of the royal son and daughter of the merchant Ambartsum in the royal palace. So they waited for their happiness. And you will wait too.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru