In ancient times, there lived a strong, intelligent and handsome young man. Only trouble: his eyes sparkled, like those of a sighted person, but he could not see anything. Everyone felt sorry for him in the village, and girls and boys never forgot to invite him with them everywhere.
One day his friends called him to a neighboring village. We walked around, had fun, and when we got ready to go home, we forgot about the blind man.
The poor guy didn’t know the way, but he didn’t get angry with his friends. Slowly, groping his way, he made his way home alone. He walked and walked and accidentally wandered into a house where guests had gathered just at that time. The young man realized that everyone was looking at him, and pretended to measure the length of the wall, while at the same time he was groping for the door. Then his owner asks:
- Tell me, please, what are you doing, my dear?
“Yes, I’m measuring your house, dear owner,” the blind man answers him, “I want to find out if it is as big as my mother’s house.”
The owner laughed and asked again:
- So what? Whose house is bigger?
“Perhaps your house is five shai longer, master,” the blind young man calmly answered.
[Shai is a measure of length, slightly more than 1.5 m.]
The blind man says this, but he himself is still looking for the door. He reached along the wall to the place where the owner was sitting. The owner got up and went to get some betel to greet the guest. No one noticed that the young man was blind. While the owner was going for betel, the blind man felt nearby a wooden stick and an iron rake: the owner, apparently, was putting them on the handle, but did not have time to finish the job. The blind man took it and put the rake on the handle. The owner comes in with betel nut and sees that the rake is firmly planted, the handle is planed and shiny, and there are shavings lying on the floor. He completely forgot that he had planed the handle himself, and thought that the guest had done it all so deftly and quickly.
- Did you fix the rake so nicely? - asks the owner.
- Me, and who else? - answers the blind man. The owner liked the guest: he was skilled in his work and handsome, and offered him his beautiful daughter as his wife.
The blind man was left to live in the new house. The next morning he went out into the street, tripped and fell into the well. It’s good that there was little water in the well. The blind man did not drown, but only got wet, like a mouse in the rain. He’s sitting in a well, he doesn’t know how to get out of there.
Luckily, his wife went to the well to get water. She saw her husband in the well, was surprised, and asked:
- Why did you, hubby, climb into the well? The blind man immediately found what to say:
“I see that the well is not in order: a lot of dirt has accumulated.” So I decided to clean it up a little. You should have brought me a ladder, little wife, otherwise someone took mine for a short while and for some reason is not carrying it.
With these words, the blind man bent down and threw several handfuls of dirt out of the well. The wife felt sorry for her husband: he is so hardworking, he is always looking for work.
She ran, brought a ladder and said:
- Come on, hubby, the workers will do it without you, get out quickly, otherwise you’ll catch a cold.
The blind man is cold, chilled all over, but pretends that he doesn’t want to quit his job; reluctantly climbed out of the well.
A few days later, the blind man's wife went to the market, and the mother-in-law steamed sticky rice. She put the full cup on the tray and took it to her son-in-law. She didn’t say anything to her son-in-law, silently left the food and went to do other things. Suddenly a dog came running and ate all the rice from the cup. The mother-in-law returned and looked - the cup was empty.
– Have you already eaten everything? Would you like some more rice? - she asks her son-in-law.
The blind man heard about rice, guessed why the dog was slurping, and quickly answered:
- Thank you, mother. I've eaten my fill.
The next day, the wife went to the market again, and the mother-in-law again steamed sticky rice and brought it to the blind man, but forgot about the cup. She ran to the kitchen for a cup, put it on a tray, and handed it to her son-in-law. The blind man heard someone moving nearby and decided that it was the dog who had come to eat rice again. The young man wanted to drive the dog away, so he swung and hit his mother-in-law right between the eyes. The mother-in-law fell, groaning, screaming, calling people for help. At this time, the wife returned from the market. The mother-in-law told her everything and at the same time called her son-in-law an insolent and ignorant person. The wife was angry with her husband. And the blind man calmly says to her:
“According to our customs, only the wife can serve rice to her husband.” My mother-in-law is also still young. The first time I endured it, but she violated the custom the second time. So I had to hit a respected woman so that there would be no unnecessary suspicions and gossip in the house and among the neighbors.
The wife and mother-in-law heard these words, decided that he was right, and stopped being offended by him.
A few days later, the wife sent her husband and his workers into the forest to gather wood and plan the plows.
“Today we’re going to the forest,” says the blind man to the workers. “Let’s sing songs and call to each other along the way, so that it’s not scary.”
The workers did just that. And the blind man walked with them, listened to the voices and reached the place safely. The workers selected a suitable tree, cut it down, put it on their shoulders and carried it. In the middle of the road the blind man fell ill. He ordered the workers to drag the tree to the house, and he lay down and lay there. Soon two horsemen appeared on the road. They saw that the man was lying, groaning, and asked:
- What's wrong with you, young man? And he answers:
“I went into the forest to cut down a tree to plan a plow.” I didn’t have time to do anything when I suddenly fell ill.
The horsemen took pity on the poor fellow, cut down the tree, and cut an excellent plow out of it - as a gift to the young man. Then they mounted their horses and rode off.
Meanwhile, workers came to the blind man’s wife and said that her husband had fallen ill and remained in the forest near the road. The wife grabbed the medicine and ran to help her husband. She got to the place where her husband was staying, approached him, but the blind man didn’t see her, didn’t meet his wife, and wasn’t happy. She was offended and began to reproach her husband.
“Forgive me, little wife,” says the blind man. “I just finished whittling the plow.” I was admiring my work and didn’t notice you approaching.
Then the wife looked at the plow: the plow came out great. She stopped being angry with her husband, took his hand, and the couple returned home with a new plow. And when the father-in-law saw the plow, he praised his son-in-law for a long time, and everyone around congratulated his father-in-law on being a good worker in the house.
Soon the celebration of the end of the harvest arrived. Many guests came to the blind man's house. Everyone took whatever they wanted from different dishes into their cup. The young man sat and did not know what to do. Then he thought and said:
– Instead of reaching for each dish and helping yourself, wouldn’t it be better to mix the dishes and divide them among everyone – it will be more convenient and tastier.
The people decided that the owner was right, mixed all the food and divided it into equal shares. The blind man sits and eats with the guests. And when he ate the last piece of buffalo meat, suddenly a miracle happened, he received his sight. But then, instead of joy, anxiety crept into the young man’s soul: which woman is his wife? And then he came up with a little trick. Pretend to be drunk and start harassing all the women. The wife turned pale with jealousy, got up from her seat and led her husband away. This is how the young man recognized his wife.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru