Once upon a time there lived a young man who wooed a girl named Maryam. She had one hundred dinars and proposed to her fiancé:
- Let's agree this way. I will give you three mules loaded with musk. Take them with you. And if you can make there be six mules, I will marry you. If you don't do this, you'll lose your head.
He took three mules and led them to him. Then he drove them into the city and sold one for a pound of meat, the second for a head, and the third for two leather thongs. After thinking, he said:
- Help me, Lord! Now I’ll come to the person to whom I sold the mule for a pound of meat, and he will say to me: “Take a pound of meat, well, at least lamb.” I will answer him: “I sold you a mule for a pound of meat from your body, and I will cut it out if you do not give me two mules.” In a conversation with another I will say: “The mule was sold to you for your own head, and if you do not give me two mules in return, I will cut off your head.” And to the third I will say this: “I demand two belts made from your own skin. And, if you do not give me two mules, I will cut two sandal straps from the skin of your back."
So he did. And he received six mules. He drove them home. Arriving at his village, he married Maryam.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru