“I can’t grow old,” the king thinks. “Now everyone is afraid of me, no one dares to contradict me. But if I become old and decrepit, the people will immediately stop listening to me. How will I deal with them then?” Who will say whether this happened or not, it is only true that there lived a cunning and cruel king.
In his life he never treated anyone kindly, there was no person whom he would regret, there was no dog he would caress.
Everyone - from young to old - was afraid of the king, but he himself was afraid of only one thing - old age.
All day long the king sat in his chambers and looked at himself in the mirror.
If he notices gray hair, he will touch it up with paint. If he notices a wrinkle, he will smooth it out with his hand.
“I can’t grow old,” the king thinks. “Now everyone is afraid of me, no one dares to contradict me. But if I become old and decrepit, the people will immediately stop listening to me. How will I deal with them then?” And in order to never remember old age, the king ordered to kill all old people.
As soon as a person’s head turns grey, that’s the end of him. The royal guards with axes and axes grab him, take him to the square and chop off his head.
From all over the country, women and children, boys and girls came to the king - everyone brought rich gifts to the king, everyone shed bitter tears, everyone begged the king to spare their fathers and husbands.
Finally, the king got tired of listening to complaints every day. He called his messengers and ordered them to announce his great mercy to the people in all cities and villages, on all roads and squares.
The messengers saddled their horses and rode off in different directions, and on all roads and streets, at all intersections and squares they blew trumpets and shouted loudly:
- Listen, everyone! Listen up everyone! The king grants you his mercy. Whoever retrieves a golden jug from the bottom of the lake will save the life of his father, and will receive the jug as a reward. Such is the royal mercy! And whoever cannot get the jug will not save his father and will lose his head. Such is the royal mercy!
Before the messengers had time to travel around half the country, brave young men began to converge and converge on the lake.
The shore of the lake was steep, and from its height, through the clean, transparent water, a beautiful golden jug with a thin neck, with patterned carvings, and a curved handle was clearly visible.
And now ninety-nine days have passed.
Ninety-nine brave men tried their luck.
Ninety-nine heads were cut off by the cruel king, because no one could get the jug from the bottom of the lake, as if someone had enchanted it. If you look from above, everyone can see the jug, but in the water, no one can find it.
And at that very time, in that very country there lived a young man named Asker. Asker loved his father very much, and when he saw that his father was getting old, that wrinkles were appearing on his face, and his hair was turning gray with gray hair, Asker took his father far into the mountains, into a remote gorge, built a hut there and hid his old man in this hut.
Every day, when the sun went behind the mountains, the young man secretly made his way into the gorge and brought food to his father. One day Asker came to the gorge, sat down next to his father and thought.
– What concern is on your heart, my child? - asked the old man. – Maybe you’re tired of coming here every day?
“No, father,” the young man answered, “in order to see you healthy and unharmed, I am ready to walk through these mountains three times a day.” Another concern is on my heart. The royal jug never leaves my head day or night. No matter how much I think, I just can’t understand why, when you look into the clear water from the shore, the jug is visible so clearly that it seems that if you just stretch out your hand, it’s yours.
And as soon as someone jumps into the water, the water immediately becomes cloudy and the jug seems to fall through the bottom, as if it never existed.
The old man listened silently to his son and thought.
“Tell me, my son,” the old man finally said, “is there some kind of tree standing on the shore of the lake, in the place from where the jug is visible?”
“Yes, father,” said the young man, “there is a large, spreading tree on the shore.”
“Remember well,” the old man asked again, “isn’t the jug visible in the shadow of the tree?”
“Yes, father,” said the young man, “a wide shadow falls from the tree on the water, and just in this shadow there is a jug.”
“Well, then listen to me, my son,” said the old man. “Climb this tree and you will find the royal jug among its branches.” And the jug that is visible in the water is only its reflection.
The young man ran faster than an arrow to the king.
“I bet my head,” he shouted, “I will get your jug, dear king!”
The king laughed.
“The only thing I’m missing is your head, for good measure.” I have already cut off ninety-nine heads - yours will be the hundredth.
“Maybe so, maybe not so,” answered the young man. “But I’m afraid that this time I won’t be able to even the score for you.”
“Well, try your luck,” said the king and ordered the servants to sharpen the ax more sharply.
And the young man went to the shore and, without hesitation, climbed a tree that grew above the cliff.
The people gathered on the shore gasped in surprise.
- May Allah have mercy on him! That's right, he lost his mind from fear! - some said.
“Maybe he wants to jump from a tree into the water,” others said.
Meanwhile, the young man climbed to the very top and there, among the branches, he found a golden jug - with a thin neck, with patterned carvings, and a curved handle.
Only the jug was hanging on the tree upside down, so that it would seem to everyone that it was standing in the water, as it should be, upside down.
The young man took the jug from the tree and brought it to the king.
The king threw up his hands.
“Well,” he says, “I didn’t expect such intelligence from you.” Did you really figure out how to get the jug yourself?
“No,” said the young man, “I wouldn’t have thought of it myself.” But I have an old father, whom I hid from your merciful eyes, and he guessed where the jug was hidden. And I just listened to his advice.
The king thought.
“It can be seen that old people are smarter than young people,” he said, “if one old man guessed what ninety-nine young men could not guess.”
Since then, in that country, no one dares to lay a finger on the old people, everyone honors their gray hair and wisdom, and when they meet an old person on the way, they give way to him and bow deeply.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru