Not far from the royal palace there lived a dark-skinned old man. He was a cheerful man, he never complained or was sad. He worked from morning to evening, and when it got dark, he would sit at the door of his hut and sing:
How wonderful life is! How wonderful life is! The king did not like this. “Why,” he thinks, “is this old man so happy? Why is he singing a cheerful song? How dare he? Well, just wait! I’ll show you a wonderful life!”
I thought and thought about how to ruin someone else’s joy, and came up with an idea. He ordered the old man to be called to him and said:
- Take this diamond ring. Hide it and keep it well. It costs a lot of money. You'll return it when I tell you. And look, my ring will disappear - you will hang on the gallows.
- Ay-ay-ay! - the old man was scared. -Where should I hide this thing?
- It's your business. Think for yourself. Take the ring and go.
The old man trudged home. He goes and racks his brains: what to do? He came home, poked his head in one corner, another, thought this way and that, and buried the ring in the ashes of the hearth. I leveled the ashes, sat down on the threshold and started singing:
How wonderful life is!
How wonderful life is!
And the king in the palace listens and rubs his hands:
- Play, play, you don’t have long left! After all, what did you come up with, the villain! He sent a servant to spy where the old man would hide the jewel so that he could steal it and throw it into the sea.
He did everything exactly. He crept to the hut, climbed onto the roof, raked the straw and saw the old man hiding the ring in the hearth. In the morning the old man went into the field, and the servant stole the ring and threw it into the sea.
Soon the king called the old man to the palace and said:
“I order you to bring me tomorrow the ring that I entrusted to you to keep.”
He, of course, goes straight home. I fumbled and fumbled in the ashes - there was no ring! I grabbed my head, oh, what a disaster! There is no avoiding the gallows now. I grieved and grieved and decided:
- Nothing can be done. Why shed tears in vain!
He sat down at the door and sang his own:
How wonderful life is! How wonderful life is! Lo and behold, a fishmonger walks by. The old man called out to the fisherman, bought a big fish from him, sharpened his knife sharper and - zh-zhik! - I tore open the fish's belly. And how it will shine! Oh, oh, oh, this is a royal ring!
Here the old man actually almost died, from joy! He dances and screams at the top of his lungs:
How wonderful life is! How wonderful life is! The king's ears almost burst. He stamped his feet.
- Get this swindler here! - yells to the servant. - So that this very hour presents me with my treasure!
And the old man sings and has fun! He doesn’t remember himself from happiness.
He ran to the palace and handed the king a ring. He was completely stunned.
“Tell me,” he shouts, “how it happened!” The old man told everything in order. The king felt ashamed. He let the old man go. The old man went home, sat down near the hut and sang:
How wonderful life is! How wonderful life is! So he sang until his last hour, and no one touched him anymore.
The fairy tale entered the door as it should, but came out backwards. Let the king tell his story, and now it’s my turn to listen.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru