There lived a rich merchant in Alemteju. The more money he put into his chest, the stingier he became. All day long I was only thinking about how to make money and throw another handful of gold coins into the chest.
One day he bought a bunch of sheep and sold them for a big profit. Cheerful, with a tight wallet in his pocket, the merchant was returning home from the market. And how could he not have fun! Four hundred gold escudos jingled in my wallet.
“With these four hundred I will buy sheep again and sell them for eight hundred. I will buy new ones and again sell them for twice the price...” thought the greedy merchant and became so daydreamed that he dropped his wallet from his pocket.
Only at home he discovered the loss and, together with his tight wallet, almost lost his mind. He did not sleep all night, sighed and groaned, and in the morning he went to the ruler of the city, the Grand Duke, and, bowing low, began to ask him:
- O Grand Duke, protector of the unfortunate and patron of all honest people! Help me out of trouble, order a decree to be announced: if anyone finds a wallet with four hundred escudos, let him bring it to you and out of four hundred he will receive forty as a reward.
The Duke took pity on the merchant and on the same day ordered an announcement in the square about the loss and the promised generous reward. And three days later a poor woman came to the duke and handed him a wallet with four hundred escudos.
“Your honesty is worthy of reward,” said the Grand Duke and ordered the merchant to be called, and ordered the merchant to be called.
Seeing his wallet, the merchant poured the money onto the table and greedily began to count the gold pieces.
There were exactly four hundred of them.
But now the merchant did not want to part with a tenth of the money.
- Oh woman! - exclaimed the swindler. - Not all the money is here! In addition to these four hundred escudos, I put four more Venetian gold coins in my wallet!
The woman calmly answered:
“Sir merchant, if I wanted to appropriate your money, I would take the entire wallet and would not bring it to the lord duke.”
Everyone understood that she was telling the truth, but the merchant continued to shout and scold the woman.
Of course, the Duke guessed that the greedy merchant simply did not want to pay the promised reward, and ordered him:
- Come to me and give me your wallet.
The merchant carried out the order.
The Duke asked:
“Are you saying that there were four more Venetian coins in your wallet?”
- Yes, Señor Duke.
- Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier? Or do you want to appropriate someone else's?
And, raising his voice, he said:
— This wallet does not belong to the merchant. I also lost my wallet the other day, and it contained just the same amount of gold escudos, but not a single Venetian coin. So this wallet is mine.
Then, turning to the woman, the Duke added:
“Venerable senora, it is not the one who is rich who gives, but the one who is kind—that’s what our people say.” That's why you brought this wallet here. Take it as a reward for your kindness.
And he gave the woman a wallet with all the escudos.
But the greedy merchant left with nothing and became a laughing stock for the whole of Alemteju for a long time.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru