A long time ago, in one city, a blind beggar appeared every day in the market square and shouted in a mournful voice:
- Let everyone give me alms and hit me in the face! I ask everyone to give me alms and a slap in the face! Now I will tell the story of how greed for wealth blinded my eyes and I stopped seeing the white light...
And the blind man told this story:
— My name is Abdullah, and I come from Baghdad. After my father’s death, I received a considerable inheritance, but I was unreasonable, lazy and quickly squandered all my property. My wife persuaded me to buy a couple of camels with my last money. I began to transport goods and live like that. Little by little I saved money, began to get rich, and after a few years there were already eighty camels in my caravan. I transported goods from Baghdad to Barsa and other big cities.
One day I was returning home to Baghdad with a caravan and stopped to rest halfway. I entangled the camels and let them graze, while I sat down under a tree to have dinner. Suddenly a dwarf appeared from somewhere. He came up to me and we said hello. The dwarf sat down next to me and asked where I was from and where I was going. I answered him and shared dinner with him. So we sat under a tree and talked.
Suddenly the dwarf said:
“I know a place in the mountains where a huge treasure is hidden. If you load all your camels with gold and all kinds of jewelry, you will not notice the loss: there is no number of treasures there.”
I heard these words of the dwarf and passionately wanted to take possession of the treasures. And I began to ask the dwarf:
"Show me this place and I will give you one camel. Load it with jewelry and take it wherever you want."
“You want to get such incredible wealth cheaply,” answered the dwarf. “If you give me half of your camels, then I will take you and show you the treasures.”
“If I give him forty camels, and load the remaining forty with gold for myself, it will be very good,” I thought. “It’s no joke, you can easily get such enormous wealth!” And I promised to give the dwarf forty camels.
So we gathered our eighty camels into one caravan and set off. Soon we reached the mountain and entered a deep, gloomy gorge. It was so narrow that camels could hardly get through there, and even then in single file. The dwarf walked ahead. Suddenly he stopped and said:
"Here we are. Place your camels on the ground and prepare them for loading."
I did as the dwarf ordered. Then he walked a little further and stopped at a high rock. Then he collected an armful of brushwood and set it on fire. When the fire flared up, the dwarf threw some powder into the fire and quietly spoke a few words. Suddenly the ground beneath him shook, as if during an earthquake, a terrible crack was heard, and a deep crack appeared in the rock near the place where the fire was burning.
“Follow me,” said the dwarf.
We entered a crack and found ourselves in a huge cave. What did my eyes see there! Piles of gold coins, chests of precious metals... I swear on my life, there was no end to the treasures!
I began to grab jewelry and gold coins like crazy and fill my pockets. But the dwarf ordered me to quickly take out the chests and bags and load them onto the camels.
When we had loaded all the camels, the dwarf took a small silver box from one chest, examined it and carefully put it in his pocket. Then he took me by the hand and led me out of the cave. As soon as we left, the dwarf cast another spell. The earth shook, the crack closed - and in front of us there was only a high rock.
The camels got up with difficulty - the luggage was so heavy. Soon we got out of the gorge and onto the road.
“Farewell and be happy. Now you are the richest man,” said the dwarf.
He counted forty camels and went towards Basra. And I turned the remaining forty camels to my native Baghdad.
I took a step forward and stopped. Greed squeezed my heart with its claws: “I gave the dwarf forty of my camels and even treasures. Why did I do this? I robbed myself, unfortunate thing! What does the dwarf need such wealth. Maybe I myself would someday find this gorge and this treasure, and then all the treasures would go to me alone.”
And I felt so sorry for my camels and treasures that I could not stand it and ran to catch up with the dwarf.
“Oh, great dwarf!” I told him. “You are a lonely wanderer, why do you need so many camels? You can’t handle them. Better give me ten back, thirty will be enough for you. I will remember your kindness all my life.”
The dwarf silently counted out ten camels for me, and drove the rest on his way.
Now I had fifty camels loaded with gold and jewels, and I was happy. But I didn’t even have time to walk fifteen steps when greed began to torment me again: “Why didn’t I ask him for twenty or thirty camels at once! Maybe he would have given them to me. Why does he need these riches?”
And I started running after the dwarf again, caught up with him and said:
“You haven’t forgotten that these camels are mine? I know all their habits and know how to control them. But it will be difficult for you to cope with them. Better give me another twenty of them. Ten camels will be enough for you.”
The dwarf said nothing and gave me twenty more camels, and took the remaining ten with him.
But greed took possession of me more and more. I began to ask him to give me and the rest ten camels.
The dwarf did not say a word and gave away the last camels.
Now I collected all my camels, put them in order and, completely happy, got ready to go to Baghdad. Suddenly I remembered about the silver box that the dwarf had put in his pocket, and thought: “The dwarf gave me forty camels with jewelry without a dispute, should I take this box from him too? What is it for him? But it will be useful to me - after all, it also costs money.”
But that was not the case! The dwarf did not give the box back. No matter how much I asked him, he said no, and that was that. I wanted more and more to get this box, but the dwarf no longer listened to me, silently turned and went his way.
Then I thought: “I’m a fool! It’s not for nothing that the dwarf gave away forty camels with jewelry; he took the most precious thing for himself - this box. All the treasures of the world must be hidden in it!”
My mind went blank from greed. I rushed after the dwarf, grabbed him and threatened:
“Give me the box, dwarf, or I’ll take it by force!”
The dwarf saw that I could kill him, gave me a silver box and wanted to leave. But I didn’t let him go and asked:
"Tell me, what is hidden in this box? Why is it so valuable?"
“This box contains a precious substance. If you know how to use it, you will see all the treasures,” answered the dwarf.
Then I began to ask the dwarf to show me how to use that substance. The dwarf was silent for a long time, and I demanded and threatened. Finally he opened the box, plunged two of his fingers into it, quickly took them out, whispered something and ran them over my right eyelid.
And suddenly the mountains around seemed to open up before me, and I saw where the gold was, where the silver was, where the diamonds and various jewelry were. Now I could collect all the riches of the world, but this was not enough.
“Anoint my left eyelid too,” I ordered the dwarf.
“You can’t,” said the dwarf, “you will go blind forever if you anoint your eyes with this substance again.”
But I didn’t believe the dwarf - I thought that he was deceiving me, that he wanted to hide something very important from me.
"If you don't do this, I will kill you!" - I shouted in rage.
“Okay, I will fulfill your request. But for what happens after this, you will pay for it yourself,” the dwarf answered and touched the magic substance to my left eye.
As soon as he did this, suddenly everything around was plunged into impenetrable darkness. I'm blind.
When I realized this, I threw myself at the feet of the old man, sobbed and begged him: “Take all the camels, all the treasures and this box with the miraculous substance, just forgive me and give me back my sight!”
“Pitiful man!” said the old man. “You didn’t listen to me, and now no one can help you. All your life you will mourn the day when greed blinded you.”
After this, the dwarf took all the camels with jewelry and left.
I screamed for a long time, sobbed and begged the dwarf to take me to the main road, where I could join some passing caravan, but the dwarf did not hear me.
I wandered for a long time, hungry, ragged, in the mountains, until I got out onto the high road. Then I managed to join a passing caravan, and since then I, a blind beggar, have been wandering around the world begging for alms.
And I made an oath to myself, along with begging for alms and a slap in the face as punishment for my greed.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru