Once upon a time there lived a woodcutter, and he had a wife. Every day he went to the forest to chop wood. Returning home in the evening, he sold them, used the money he received to buy bread and all sorts of food, and his wife cooked dinner. After eating, they began to have fun: they played, sang songs, danced, saying: “Pish-pof, pish-pof!” In a word, they had a feast.
One day the padishah issues an order not to light candles at night. And so no one lights the fire, and the woodcutter doesn’t want to know anything: he’s dancing and having fun!
One night the padishah left the palace and accidentally approached the woodcutter’s house, lo and behold! - and in the house there is a light on, noise, din, games, dancing - who knows what! The padishah makes a note on the door and leaves.
The next day he sends the woodcutter a horse and clothes and orders him to call him to him. The padishah's people go to the woodcutter's house. They knocked on the door and asked him, and his wife replied that her husband had gone into the forest to chop wood. Then they go into the forest, bring the woodcutter home, dress him in new clothes, put him on a horse and take him to the padishah.
A woodcutter is driving, and beggars line up on both sides of the road and ask him for money. The woodcutter put his hand into his pocket, and it was empty; he drives and says, now to the right, now to the left:
- On the way back, on the way back!
Then he goes to the padishah himself. The padishah asks him what he does, and he tells it like it is. The padishah liked the woodcutter, he appointed him senior gatekeeper and bestowed him with a beautiful saber.
When the woodcutter, having mounted his horse, rides home, the beggars on the road again ask him for alms. But the padishah didn’t give him any money!
- You don’t and I don’t, you don’t and I don’t! - he says left and right and so he gets to his house.
But the woodcutter and his wife got hungry.
- Well, what are we going to do now, is it any better? Go, hubby, to the shopkeeper, bring him this saber, and get something to eat for it.
And so the woodcutter goes to the shopkeeper, gives him the saber, takes some food and returns home. And again, as before, without caring about anything, they start a feast. The woodcutter then makes a saber out of wood and sheathes it.
And the Shah’s servant saw all their tricks and reported to the Padishah the next morning. He decided to punish the woodcutter.
It must be said that in those distant times, when someone was given a new position, the newly appointed one was obliged to cut off the head of one of the criminals.
The padishah orders all his people to gather in one place and sends for a woodcutter. He dresses, mounts his horse and arrives at the palace; The padishah orders the criminal to be brought in and says to the woodcutter:
- Cut off this man's head.
And the woodcutter has a wooden saber! How can we be here?
- O Allah! If there is no sin behind this man, let my saber become wooden; if there is, let him cut him down! - he exclaims and pulls out a saber.
And now everyone sees that the saber is made of wood. Then the woodcutter says to the padishah:
“You see, effendi, there is no sin behind this man!”
And the padishah, although he knew what the man had done with his saber, was so pleased with his resourcefulness that he granted him a konak, gave him a lot of money and made him his favorite.
The woodcutter takes his wife, and they live in that konak until their death: they eat, drink and spend their lives in peace.
They have reached the utmost joy, and we would like to sit on the ship's mast.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru