There once lived a young prince whose treasury was as inexhaustible as the sea. And he decided to build himself a palace - just opposite the palace of the king himself, but only even more beautiful. When the palace was ready, the prince ordered the inscription to be carved on the gate: “Money makes everything.”
One day the king was walking, and this inscription caught his eye. The king ordered the prince to be summoned immediately; he had recently settled in the city and had not yet been presented to the court.
- Congratulations! - the king told him. “The palace you built is a real miracle.” Mine looks like a hut in comparison! Congratulations!.. However, tell me, was it you who ordered the inscription: “Money makes everything”?
The young man began to understand where his vanity had led him.
- My lord! - he answered. “If Your Majesty does not like the inscription, I will order it to be scraped off immediately!”
- No, why not! Just explain to me what this inscription means? Do you think you could use your money to kill me?
The prince understood what it smelled like.
- Oh! Your Majesty, forgive me... I will immediately destroy this inscription! And if you don’t like the palace, one word from you and I will turn it into rubble.
- I told you I like it. Let it stay for itself. But if you think that with money everything is possible, prove it to me. I give you three days, manage to talk to my daughter during this time. If you can, marry her. If you fail, I will order your head to be cut off.
Agree?
Despair seized the prince. He did not eat, did not drink, did not sleep, day and night thinking about only one thing: how to save his head. There was no hope of seeing the king's daughter - she lived in a castle guarded by a hundred soldiers. On the second day, the prince sat down to write his will.
That day his nurse, an old mother, came to the young man. She looked after him when he was a child, and the prince left her to live in the palace. Seeing him sad, the old woman asked what was wrong with him. Word by word he told her what trouble he was in.
“Well, so what,” said the mother. “Have you decided that everything is lost?” By God, it’s funny!.. Leave this matter to me!
She immediately hobbled to the most famous silversmith in the city and ordered him to make a hollow silver goose, a little larger than a man. And so that this goose can open and close its beak and be sure to be ready for tomorrow.
- By tomorrow? Are you crazy? - exclaimed the master.
- Definitely by tomorrow! - And the old woman showed a large wallet with gold coins. - Take the deposit, and tomorrow I will give you the rest.
The master even opened his mouth in surprise.
“Well, that’s another matter,” he said. “We can try.”
The next day the goose was ready - not a goose, but a miracle.
The old woman says to the prince:
- Take your violin and climb inside the goose. As soon as we're outside, start playing.
And so they set off around the city. The old woman was dragging a silver goose by the ribbon. The prince, sitting inside, played the violin.
People opened their mouths in surprise. Everyone was in a hurry to see the miracle.
The rumor about the silver goose reached the castle where the king's daughter lived, and she asked her father for permission to look at the old woman with the goose.
“Tomorrow the time given to the braggart expires, then go out into the street as much as you want and look at the goose.”
But the princess had already heard from someone that the next day the old woman and the goose were leaving the city. So that his daughter could see him, the king had to allow the goose to be brought into the castle. That's all the old mother needed.
As soon as the princess was left alone with the silver goose and began, enchanted, to listen to the music flowing from its beak, the goose suddenly opened up and a man jumped out.
“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “I am the prince who must talk to you so that tomorrow morning I don’t lose my head on your father’s orders.” You will save me if you say that you spoke to me...
The next day the king ordered the prince to be summoned.
- Well, how? Did money help you talk to my daughter?
“Yes, Your Majesty,” answered the young man.
– Ask her yourself.
The princess was called, and she said that the young man was inside a silver goose, which the king himself allowed to be brought into the castle.
The king took off his crown and put it on the prince's head.
– You have not only money, but also a subtle mind. So be happy - I am giving you my daughter as a wife.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru