The king had a daughter of unprecedented beauty and extraordinary intelligence. Many suitors came to ask for her hand in marriage, but none of them could compare in intelligence with the beauty. And then the king announced throughout all the lands that he would marry his daughter to someone who would tell her three riddles that she would not be able to solve.
But in other kingdoms-states there was no worthy groom.
A shepherd from the Carpathian Mountains heard about the extraordinary princess.
- What kind of wonder lives in the royal chambers? What if I outsmart her and take her as my wife?! - said the shepherd to his comrades.
With these words, the shepherd mounted his horse and rode to the palace. Did he want water? drink. Did you lie down by the well and scoop up some water? and drinks. While he was drinking, the horse ate the bread in the bag.
“There is one riddle!” - thought the shepherd and drove on.
In a dark forest I lost my way. I began to look closely at the trees to see which side the moss grew on, in order to find the way. I found it and thought:
“There is a second riddle!”
And I moved on. He really wanted to find a third riddle in the forest. And the shepherd sees a hunter who is aiming at a hare.
“There is a third riddle!” — the lad was delighted.
Many days and many nights passed until the shepherd reached the royal palace.
- I came, good king, to woo your daughter! - My daughter? - the king was surprised. - Many wanted to have her as their wife, but they didn’t have enough sense! - And I’ll marry her!
The king liked the lad and ordered the royal gates to be opened for the shepherd. They brought him to the princess. She didn't even look at the shepherd. Says:
- I listen to your riddles! - The first riddle: the bread ate the horse.
No matter how much the princess wondered, she could not figure it out.
- Don't know! - he says. - The horse ate the bread, my princess, it’s like this: I had a horse, I deserved it for many years of work. Once he ate bread from my bag, and the bread was poisoned. So my poor horse died - it turns out he ate his bread.
The princess listened to the tale and said that this could have happened.
- Good riddle. I would never have solved it. — Second riddle: deaf and blind, but they show the way. The princess thinks, thinks, and again cannot figure it out. “I can’t figure this one out either.” “These are trees, princess,” answered the shepherd. - In the forest, we find out from the trees where is north and where is south.
Again the princess agreed that the riddle was correct.
- What is the third riddle? - she asks. “There is a third one: the meat ran away, but the iron remained in place.”
No matter how much the clever princess racked her brains, she could not solve the third riddle.
“And I can’t guess,” the girl admitted. “The hunter shot a hare,” says the boy. — The hare ran away, but the hunter with the gun remained in place.
Whether the king wanted it or not, he gave his daughter to a simple lad from the Carpathian Mountains, who was smarter than the king’s sons.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru