There lived two people, a rich one and a poor one. The poor man had only one sheep, but the rich man had many. One day a rich man came to a poor man and asked him:
— How are you, what’s new with you?
“Nothing new, everything is fine,” he replied.
—Have you heard the message from the ruler of our country? - asked the rich man.
- What kind of message?
“The Sultan needs you,” said the rich man.
- Why does he need me?
- He wants you to give him your sheep.
“But the Sultan is much richer than me,” the poor man objected, “why does he need my only sheep?”
“Be that as it may, he ordered me to bring him your sheep,” answered the rich man.
The poor man was an obedient man; he gave his sheep to the rich man. The rich man brought her to his home, killed her there and, together with his household, ate their fill of meat.
The next day the poor man met the Sultan. He greeted him and said:
- Oh, ruler of the country, you are rich and great, you have a great fortune. And I'm a poor man. Why did you take my only sheep?
- When could I take your sheep? - the Sultan was surprised.
“Yesterday you sent a rich man to me,” said the poor man.
- What did he tell you? - asked the Sultan.
“He took my sheep and said that he must take it to the Sultan.
The Sultan immediately sent for the rich man and, when he arrived, asked him:
“Did you take a sheep from this poor man yesterday?”
“Yes,” he answered.
- Why did you take it? Don't you have your own?
- Yes, but I wanted to have this one too. Mine are too dear to me, I didn’t want to kill them.
Then the Sultan said.
“Before this poor man had only one sheep, but I think now he will have more.”
- How is this possible? - asked the rich man.
“You will give him all your sheep right now.”
“I won’t give it back,” said the rich man. “I took only one sheep from him, why should I give him all of them?”
“My word is law,” said the Sultan. “You took all his fortune and you will pay everyone back.”
And he sent people to the rich man to take his sheep and give them to the poor man.
“Sultan, Sultan,” the rich man was indignant, “you have become a bad judge!”
“Now you will become poor,” the Sultan told him, “and the poor man will become rich.”
And the poor man received all the rich man's sheep, and he returned home in tears.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru