Once upon a time there lived a rich man and a poor man. They were neighbors - only a fence separated them. The rich man had a large estate with beautiful houses, a garden and a large swimming pool. He had herds of horses, herds of cattle and a lot of all kinds of property. He kept many servants and took three beauties as his wives.
The poor man, apart from a small courtyard, one hut and poor property, had nothing else. All day long he wandered here and there, doing all sorts of menial, hard work, and everything he got he brought home and spent on his poor existence.
One day he came home from work tired, ate a bowl of stew his wife had cooked, when suddenly the rich man’s servant knocked on the gate of his yard. Entering the house and greeting him, he said to the poor man:
“The owner is calling you, he sent me and said: “Go and bring him quickly!”
“Why did your master need me?” - asked the poor man.
“I don’t know, probably some necessary business,” answered the servant. Reluctantly the poor man got up and walked.
On a sufa near the house, on silk blankets, the rich man lay on his side and drank tea. A young servant sat next to him and rubbed his bare, plump and hairy legs.
“Come in, neighbor,” said the rich man, seeing the poor man. “You never come to me.” But sometimes you have a shortage of something, but you never come and ask.
“Every person should be content with his own,” answered the poor man.
“You’re very arrogant,” said the rich man, “come in and sit on the
The poor man sat down on the edge of the sufa.
“I want to ask you one thing,” the rich man began. “You know that I lack nothing, except bird’s milk, I have everything.” But, as you probably know, there is not a single quiet day in my yard. Then stubborn servants irritate me, which makes my blood worse, I scold them, beat them. What if
Take the quarrels and scandals of my discourteous wives, then there is no end to them. A lot of people come to me, in short, there is always noise, quarrels, bickering in my yard. One thing surprises me: you are very poor, you don’t have even a thousandth of my wealth, but it’s always quiet in your yard. I have never heard your wife cry or a scandal between you. As if you have no sorrow or lack. In your yard you can constantly hear sincere laughter. Tell me why is this?
“There is no reason for a scandal in our house,” said the poor man. “I do everything so that we can somehow live.” My wife knows this and therefore always takes care of me. My wife is also constantly full of worries. I love her and try to remove sadness and grief from her heart. Moreover, we have a pearl, which we play with during our holidays, our mood rises, our laughter becomes louder.
The rich man let the poor man go, but he himself thought: “Can one pearl really be the cause of joy and laughter? I will buy not one, but three pearls and play with them with my wives. I’ll see what comes of it!”
The next day the rich man spent a lot of money and bought three precious pearls. Arriving home, he sat down on the sufa and called his wives. He gave each of them a pearl and said:
- Go and sit in a circle, now we’ll play pearls! The eldest wife first looked at her pearl, then stared at
pearls of younger wives. It seemed to her that her pearl was worse and cheaper than the other two. The middle wife and the youngest felt the same way. Jealous of each other, they raised a big scandal.
The rich man became enraged, he beat and drove away all the wives, and he ran to the poor man. Opening the gate of his yard, he heard laughter and fun. Entering the courtyard, he saw a poor man and his wife, who, having seated a two-year-old boy between them, were busy with him and joyfully laughed at his cute childish pranks.
“I bought three pearls and brought them home,” the rich man said to the poor man, “but they did not become the reason for our joy; on the contrary, because of them, my wives raised a scandal and began to argue.” What invaluable feature does your pearl have if, when playing with it, you become joyful and cheerful?
“O neighbor,” said the poor man, “our pearl is not a dead object, like your pearls!” Our pearl is this dear son of ours, whom we love with all our hearts and souls. Could any pearl be better or more expensive than this?
Now only the rich man understood everything and, without saying anything, with his head bowed, left the poor man’s yard.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru