Once upon a time there lived an emperor who was stupid; he just wanted to eat sweet food, dress smartly, rob people and get more money from him.
And then one day there was a mouse in the golden imperial chambers. The sovereign was frightened, because he had never seen a mouse in his life, and decided that it was some kind of evil spirit. Out of fear, he hid himself in the distant chambers; I don’t know how many days he did not appear in the throne room. Military and civilian dignitaries began to hold council and decided that a werewolf had appeared in the palace.
Time passes, he sees a mouse - everyone is afraid to drive it away: both the emperor and the dignitaries. She became completely insolent. It wags its tail, every day it waddles back and forth through the golden chambers, it gnawed through the imperial robe with dragons, and it ate through a belt trimmed with jade. The emperor and his dignitaries were more frightened than ever. The military says: a person must be found so that the monster can be caught, civilians advise holding prayers and making sacrifices to the monster. The sovereign's close associates were completely at a loss, they didn't know what to do, in the end they decided to listen to both the military and civilians: in the morning and evening, bow three times before the monster, light incense at dawn and at dusk, and quickly hang up the boards, and write on the boards: we are looking for wise people, with the understanding, so that we can catch the outlandish beast. Draw a mouse below and write: “Whoever catches a werewolf will receive ten thousand gold bars and a thousand pieces of colored satin.”
A young peasant saw the advertisement and felt funny: it wasn’t a werewolf drawn there, it was just an ordinary mouse. And he decided to catch her. He got up early, hid the big cat in his sleeve, and went to the palace. He looks - the sovereign and the dignitaries are kneeling in front of the sacrificial table, bowing. On the table, the mouse sits on its hind legs, holds a buttery pie in its front legs, and devours it by both cheeks. The peasant looks at these stubborn fools and laughs at the top of his lungs: they were not afraid of a wolf, not a lynx, just an ordinary mouse. The emperor and the dignitaries heard someone laughing, they turned their heads, and it turned out to be a peasant. They wanted to immediately tie him up and put him on trial. And the peasant calmly says:
- Don’t worry, please, I came to kill the werewolf!
He said and released the cat. The cat saw the mouse, rushed to the sacrificial table, and bit the mouse to death. The emperor and the dignitaries had their eyes wide open and their mouths agape. They had never even seen a mouse, and even less so a cat.
The peasant took the cat in his arms and walked away. The emperor was alarmed: and so he restrained the peasant, and thus persuaded him:
“You leave, and what if some evil spirit appears again, what should you do then!” Stay in the emperor's palace to guard!
No peasant at all. The sovereign presented him with ten thousand bars of gold, and added a thousand pieces of satin material. Then the peasant agreed to leave his beast to the sovereign, which is called a cat, catches all kinds of evil spirits.
The peasant returned home and distributed gold and brocade to the poor. A greedy landowner found out about this and thinks: “I wish I could get ten thousand gold bars and a thousand pieces of satin! There would be no one richer than me in the Celestial Empire.” The more he thinks, the more greed flares up in him. About that time, the emperor decided to recruit concubines to the palace, and sent people in all directions to look for beautiful girls. And who wants to give the sovereign’s own daughter as a concubine? Only the rich man was happy. So, he thinks, luck has struck, this happens once every thousand years. He took out a decorated wedding palanquin, dressed up his daughter, and took her to the emperor. And he himself thinks: “Well, I’ll get more gold and satin than a peasant.” All his hopes just burst. The landowner brought his daughter to the emperor, and the emperor said to him:
“There are no more werewolves in the palace, the cat killed them all, so I give you this cat, I gave ten thousand bars of gold and a thousand pieces of satin for it.”
So the landowner received a cat in exchange for his daughter. He is annoyed and offended, but would he dare to contradict the emperor? There is nothing to do, the landowner became sad, hung his head, and returned home with the cat.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru