One day Happiness, Intelligence and Wealth argued among themselves.
“I am more important than everyone else,” Wealth boasted.
“Without happiness, there is no need for wealth,” objected Happiness.
“If there is no intelligence, neither wealth nor happiness will help,” said the Mind.
They argued for a long time, and then decided to check: which of them was right.
They set off to wander around the world and soon met a poor horseman who was sowing corn in his small field.
Mind, Happiness and Wealth stopped.
- Let the poor man's field be covered with gold! - Wealth commanded.
And immediately the poor man’s entire field was covered with gold nuggets.
But the Mind, in order to prove its power, took and abandoned the poor man. And the poor man lost his mind. He saw gold nuggets and decided that they were simple stones.
- I have a problem: a hail of stones fell on my field! – he ran screaming through the village.
The horseman was the first to meet the rich man Bai. My neighbor is worried about something. Shall I go and see what happened there? - the bai thought and quickly went to the field.
I arrived and saw gold bars. But he didn’t let it show, he called the owner of the field and said:
“So be it, I have a lot of land, I’ll help you out.” You take my best field, and I will take yours, with stones.
The horseman was glad that he had exchanged his piece of land for a good field. The bai collected all the gold and took it away on carts, and the poor man began to plow a new field.
Then Happiness, to show its power, looked at the poor man and said:
- Be happy!
Out of nowhere, a detachment of warriors approached the horseman.
“We have been looking for a leader for a long time,” said the warriors. - We ask you to be our leader.
Dzhigit, stupidly (his mind had not returned to him), did not know what to say, he just nodded his head. Then the warriors gave him silver chain mail, girded him with precious weapons, put him on a black horse and took him away with them. The horseman looked so good that it was impossible to recognize him!
The detachment stopped for the night in the village of the same bai who exchanged his field for a piece of land of a poor man. And the bai had a daughter, the beauty of beauties.
- Let's marry our boss to the bai's daughter! - the soldiers decided and sent matchmakers to the bai.
Bai agreed, and the horseman became his daughter’s groom.
They called the people to have fun at the feast and to see their future son-in-law. But the horseman does not open his mouth and looks around somehow strangely.
He sits like that for a day, then another, as if he had filled his mouth with water. No one from the Bai's relatives comes up to him or speaks, but he does not say a word in response.
- Why is he still silent? - the relatives are amazed. - Maybe he doesn’t know how to talk?
On the third day the Bai himself became angry. They see Wealth and Happiness that things are bad, they began to ask the Mind:
- Return to the horseman!
Mind listened and restored the poor man's sanity. Just at this time the bai came and wanted to talk.
“Tell me, horseman,” he asked, “why are you still silent?”
And then, to the surprise of everyone, the horseman spoke:
“When I was still a child, enemies attacked our village. All residents rose in defense - both men and women. But the young horseman fought most bravely - he alone defeated almost all the enemies. And when the battle was over, it turned out that that young horseman was a girl dressed in a man’s dress. So I was silent for two days, I kept thinking: can this girl be considered a brave man on a par with men?
The Bai was delighted to hear that his future son-in-law was reasoning so smoothly and wisely.
They played a merry wedding to celebrate. The horseman took his young wife and left for his village.
And soon Happiness, Intelligence and Wealth met again. And they decided that the most important thing for a person is the mind! If a person has no intelligence, neither wealth nor happiness will help him.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru