The guy was handsome, strong and smart. Everyone would be glad to take him into their service. He hired himself to one agelite (ruler, prince), who was famous everywhere as a wise judge. After the guy had stayed with the agelit for several days, he told him:
“I need to go on business and resolve some disputes locally.” There is no one to replace me. Therefore, I want to ask you: will you stay here instead of me? You are the first one who seems to me smart enough for such a thing.
Having said this, the agelite left. And the guy went into the yard and began to think about his words.
- Should I stay or not? - he asked himself out loud.
“If you’re not a fool, you’ll stay,” two voices said from behind him.
The guy looked around and saw two beautiful girls. They were just entering the house. These were the daughters of an agelit. Then their laughter came from the house. “Not a bad deal for a smart guy,” thought the young man.
In the evening the agelit returned, and the young man said to him:
- I won’t think twice about it. I decided to accept your offer and stay in your place.
The next morning the agelit left. As soon as he left, both beautiful girls came to the young man, laughed and said:
- Don't you want to argue with us? You are handsome and strong, a woman is a pleasure to deal with you. So tell me, do you want to argue with us?
“I want to,” answered the young man. - Tell me what you are going to argue about.
“We are ready to give you fifty gold coins if you can take us twenty times in a row.” And if you can’t, fifty gold is yours.
The young man laughed and said:
- Let's not waste time and get started.
He took them twenty times, but the last time his strength failed him.
“You are a handsome and strong guy,” the girls told him, “but you won’t get fifty gold pieces.” On the contrary, you will have to pay fifty gold pieces to us. You took us twenty times, but on the twentieth you weakened.
The young man replied:
- This is a difficult issue, only a judge can decide it. Let's hand the case over to the agelite, your father, for trial.
The girls shouted:
- What are you saying! Yes, father will kill us if he hears what we did! He will cut us into small pieces if he ever finds out about such a dispute! Under no circumstances say anything to your father!
“You have nothing to fear,” he replied. “I’m not going to tell your father what kind of business we were doing here.” I won't talk to him about anything like that at all. But since we have a dispute, and I am replacing the judge in this house, I need to hear what he has to say to me.
The girls were so scared that when their father returned, they hid in a barn next to their home. As soon as the agelite arrived, the young man came in to him, greeted him, sat down next to him and said:
— Yesterday two people came to me and had an argument. And they argued about which of them won. One of them belonged to a strong horse. And he bet fifty gold that she could chew twenty measures of grain in a row. And another, a grain merchant, bet fifty gold pieces, claiming that a horse could not hold twenty measures. We argued and set up tests. The horse ate nineteen measures of grain one after another. And she took the twentieth into her mouth, chewed it, but couldn’t keep it in her mouth. The grain merchant said that the horse could not handle twenty measures, and demanded fifty gold pieces from its owner. But he replied that the horse contained all twenty measures and completed the task. And if she later didn’t keep the twentieth, then that’s her business. Therefore, the owner demanded fifty gold pieces for himself.
- And what do you think about this yourself? - asked the agelit.
The young man replied:
“I think the horse owner won the argument.” After all, the horse really contained all twenty measures of grain. So the merchant must pay him fifty gold pieces.
“I would have decided exactly the same,” said the agelite. “I see that you have the same views on justice and injustice as I do.” You know how to judge correctly. I'm glad you're so smart. Next time I will leave with peace of mind.
In the evening, both girls came to the guy and gave him fifty gold pieces. They laughed quietly and said:
- Thank you. But we don’t mind this money, we have enough of it.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru