Once upon a time there lived a king and a peasant, and the peasant's meadows and fields were so close to the royal palace that the owner had to pass through the courtyard of the royal castle every time on the way to his lands. One day a peasant went on a horse to buy some vein. When he was returning from the meadows through the royal courtyard, the king happened to be in the courtyard of his castle, and he began to scold the peasant.
- How dare you, idiot, drive through my yard with your hay, aren’t you ashamed?!
“Sorry, dear king,” answered the peasant. “But the fact is that there will soon be a thunderstorm, it will begin to rain, and if I drove along the long circular road, I would not make it before the rain began to pour down, and my hay would get wet.” That's why I hurried straight ahead with the hay.
“Well,” said the king. - and how do you know this?
- Great sovereign! - answered the peasant. “I know from my mare’s tail.” Look how the gadflies crawl under your tail - and this is a sure sign that there will be bad weather.
“That’s how it is...” said the king and allowed the peasant to pass.
After this, the king went to the tower of the palace astrologer and asked the fortuneteller whether it would rain today. The astrologer took the telescope, looked at the sky and said:
“No, Mister King, there won’t be a single tear today, or tomorrow, or even the day after tomorrow, but then maybe there will be.”
“I see,” said the king and descended from the tower to go to his chambers. But on the way to the palace, the king was overtaken by such heavy rain and a terrible thunderstorm that the king was wet to the skin. Finally he got, all dirty, to his palace and immediately called the fortuneteller to him.
“You, unfortunate astrologer, will have to make room, since you don’t understand anything about the weather, while a stupid and uncouth peasant, looking at the tail of his mare, sees when it will rain and when there will be a bucket,” the king told him and dismissed him from his post, sending him to the stable to remove manure.
And the king summoned the peasant to himself and gave him possession of the astrologer’s tower and the proper title, giving him the same salary as the previous fortuneteller received. Thus, thanks to horseflies and a gadfly, the peasant became the king’s friend, to the envy of all the courtiers.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru