There once was a minister for a great king. He fell out of favor, and the king ordered him to be locked at the top of a very high tower as punishment. This was done, and the minister remained there and had to die.
But he had a faithful wife. At night she came to the tower and asked her husband if there was anything she could do to help him. The minister asked his wife to come to the tower again the next night and bring with her a long rope, a strong cord, a skein of thread, a silk, a cockroach and some honey. Very surprised, the good wife obeyed her husband and brought the required items. Her husband ordered her to tie a silk thread tightly to a cockroach, then lubricate its antennae with a drop of honey and place the cockroach on the wall of the tower with its head up. She carried out all these orders, and the cockroach went on a long journey. Hearing the smell of honey ahead of him and wanting to get it, he slowly crawled forward and forward until he finally reached the top of the tower, where the minister grabbed him and took possession of the silk. Then the minister told his wife to tie the other end of the silk to a thread, and, having pulled out the entire skein, he repeated the same story with a strong cord and finally with a rope. The rest was easy: the minister climbed down the tower using a rope and ran away.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru