In one province there lived a peasant and his wife. They lived together, in harmony. But they didn’t have children. But the time came, and a daughter was born, they named her Khonchhi.
One hundred days after the girl was born, her mother suddenly died. The father had to raise his daughter alone.
She grew up, she was fourteen years old, and became a real beauty, you won’t find another one like her in the whole world, how modest and smart she is! Her fame spread far and wide.
But then the father married for the second time, and Khonchkha had a stepmother.
Evil, despicable. And she brought the same evil daughter with her. They disliked the kind and affectionate Khonchhi.
Khonchkhi works from dawn to dusk, washing himself with tears. But the father won’t say a word against his new wife, he’s afraid. Khonchhi’s stepmother once sent her to a rocky field, ordered it to be loosened with a wooden hoe, and she gave her own daughter an iron hoe and ordered her to loosen the sandy field behind the house.
Khonchkhi came to the field, just started to work, and the wooden hoe broke. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a black cow appears. The cow gave the girl an iron hoe. Khonchhi easily loosened the field.
The next day, the stepmother ordered Khonchhi to fill a huge clay jug with water, but how can you fill it when the bottom is full of holes? How much water Khonchkhi carried, all in vain, she was just exhausted.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a huge toad:
– Don’t be sad, Khonchhi! I'll help you!
The toad climbed into the jug, covered the hole, and the girl poured water to the very brim.
One day, a stepmother and daughter were getting ready for a wedding and said to their stepdaughter:
“If you want to come with us, quickly go through a bag of rice and a bag of millet.” And so that not a husk remains.
Khonchkhi began to cry and shouted in her hearts:
- Why am I so unhappy, what have I done wrong, that trouble after trouble falls on me?
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a heavenly fairy:
– Don’t be sad, Khonchhi. I'll help you! I know you have a good heart.
She called to the sparrows. The sparrows began to remove the husks from the rice. They film and tweet:
- Clean it, don’t eat it! Clean it, don't eat it!
They went through the whole bag in no time. And they dealt with the millet without difficulty. Khonchhi rearranged everything and ran to the wedding. Suddenly there is a stream on the way! Before she could jump over, she heard a loud noise behind her. She turned around and saw: the porters were carrying Kamsa* in a palanquin. Khonchkhi got scared, dropped her shoe, and ran away in one.
[Kamsa is the governor of the province.]
Kamsa approached the stream, and an embroidered shoe lay on the bank. Kamsa raised her, and when he returned home, he ordered to find the girl who had lost her shoe, and decided to take her as his wife.
The evil stepmother and her daughter found out about this and planned evil. They called Khonchkhi for a walk near the lake and pushed the poor girl into the lake.
Phatchhi put on Khonchhi's dress and went to Kamsa's house. He immediately suspected something was wrong and asked:
- Why is your face so dark?
“I’ve been basking in the sun for a long time,” Phatchkhi answers.
- Why are you pockmarked? - Kamsa asks again.
“I was in a hurry to come to you, I fell on a pea,” Phatchkhi answers.
Kamsa believed, mistook the evil Phatchkhi for Khonchhi and took her as his wife.
One day Kamsa went for a walk by the lake and saw a lotus swinging on the water. He picked a flower, brought it home, put it in a jug of water, and couldn’t stop looking at it.
And Phatchkhi will pass by - he clings to the lotus with his hair.
Phatchkhi got angry and threw the lotus into the oven. The old woman servant began to light the stove, and there was a necklace - it shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow. Suddenly the necklace turned into a girl. The girl told what happened to her, asked the old woman to set the table for Kamsa and arrange a meal.
Kamsa came, sat down at the table, took the chopsticks, but he couldn’t pick up a piece of kimchi - one stick was shorter than the other. Kamsa got angry, threw the stick and let's scold the old woman!
[Kimchi – pickled, pickled vegetables].
Here, from behind the screen, a girl raised her voice:
“You, Mr. Kamsa, immediately noticed that one stick is shorter than the other, but you can’t tell a person from a person!”
Kamsa heard this and realized that his evil stepmother and Phatchkhi had deceived him.
He immediately ordered them to be punished. And they lived happily with the sweet and kind Khonchhi.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru