Once upon a time, in one city there lived a bai. Every morning after breakfast, he lay down on the sufa on top of seven blankets and, calling his wife, began to boast:
- Hey, wife, under the shadow of my great mind and my inexhaustible wealth, you are drowning in happiness and prosperity. Thanks to my high position and great influence, you, a simple and formerly poor girl, are respected by women throughout the city. Thanks to my prosperity, you are fed and clothed. Thank God a thousand times that your husband is an intelligent man.
The rich man’s wife got up every day before dawn, fed the cattle, milked the cows, swept the yard, cleaned the house, cooked food, and every evening she prepared a delicious treat for her husband and his insatiable guests. In his large farm, the bai did not give her assistants, and she meekly coped with the work alone and embroidered skullcaps in the remaining time after all the work. The neighbors sold them at a high price, and she gave this money to the bai.
One day, when the rich man again began to praise himself and reproach his wife, she could not stand it and said:
“At first I thought that it was only thanks to you that I was fed and clothed.” But then I soon became convinced that a considerable share of my work was involved in increasing your wealth, and you reproach me in vain.
Bai first heard this bitter truth from his wife, he immediately flared up, jumped up from his seat and shouted angrily:
- Hey you, long hair - short mind! How dare you say such words to me? Without me you would be a beggar! Without me, she would have died, stuck in the mud! Get out and stay out of my sight!
But this time the husband’s threats and reproaches did not frighten the unfortunate woman. She looked with disgust at his fat and beet-red face and said:
- Okay, I won't show my face to you again! But don’t worry, I won’t become a beggar and I won’t die of hunger! On the contrary, if I become the wife of even the poorest man, I will not be a burden to him!
Having gathered her very meager things into a bundle, the woman left the bai’s yard.
On the outskirts of the city, a woman began to ask who the poorest and loneliest person here was. She was pointed to the half-beggar Said, who had only a piece of bread, received for collecting dry grass. Throughout his entire life he had eaten nothing but dry bread and flour soup, and had no other clothing except a dirty, shabby shirt with a thousand patches.
Approaching Said's house, the woman saw that the broken gate of his yard was open. The yard was dirty and unswept. Entering the dilapidated house, she saw an old torn blanket on the floor, an oily pillow that had become hard like wood from the dirt. Said's old cauldron stood with a broken edge, the smoky cast-iron teapot was black with soot, and next to it stood a pumpkin bowl...
The woman brought water from the ditch, sprinkled it and swept it in the house and in the yard. She stripped the fabric from the blanket, took the pillowcase off the pillow and washed them. After cleaning the house, she took the sewing out of her bundle and began to embroider the skullcap.
Finally Said returned home. Hefting two bundles of dry grass onto his back, he walked with his head bowed low.
Having dumped the grass in the corner of the yard, he saw that his yard had been swept and washed clothes were hung on it. Surprised by this, Said looked into the house and saw a woman bending over her embroidery. This surprised him even more and he said:
- Apparently, I was mistaken, and this is not my home.
Seeing that he intended to leave, the woman stood up and said:
- You are not mistaken, this is your home.
Said did not believe that he saw all this with his own eyes and heard with his own ears. The poor man could not even dream of a mistress of the house, no one would marry his daughter to him, and therefore, when he saw a woman in his house, he stood frozen in place. And the woman continued:
“If you don’t mind, I’ll stay in charge of your house.” Said almost fainted with joy, barely stayed on his feet and barely audibly said “of course.”
A beautiful and, as it seemed to Said, intelligent woman, she immediately began asking him how he lived.
“Every day early in the morning I go to the field to collect dry grass,” Said began to tell. “Having collected two bundles of dry grass, I take them to the market to sell.” With very little money I buy bread or flour from which I cook stew; Having eaten, I sleep until the next day.
“If so,” said the woman, “then take your grass to the market now.” Buy flour with only half the money, and bring the other half home.
Said wanted to say that the flour that could be bought with half the money received for the grass would not be enough for two, but he refrained and only thought: “This woman apparently knows what she is saying, let’s see what happens.”
And he, taking the grass, went to the market, and the woman began to embroider the skullcap again.
In the evening, Said returned and gave the woman the purchased flour and half the money. She got up, cooked some stew, and the two of them had dinner. After eating, the woman said to Said:
- Now knead the clay, repair the fallen areas of the roof of the house and the fence, and then cover everything smoothly with clay and fine sand.
Said, who slept soundly every day at this time, reluctantly went to knead the clay and repair the roof and fence. The woman again began to embroider the skullcap.
The next day, the woman asked Said to bring not two, but four bundles of grass and immediately take them to the market.
“And at the market,” she said, handing Said a brand new skullcap, “you will sell that too.” You will bring half of the proceeds home, and with half you will buy some flour, butter, onions, radishes, and also two clay cups.
Said returned home, having done everything that the new mistress of the house asked. As soon as he entered, the woman immediately put aside her embroidery, lit the fire and quickly baked unleavened flatbread in a cauldron, then cooked vegetable soup. Having poured the soup into new cups, she placed them on a clean dastarkhon. Said ate soup with hot soft flatbread and said:
- Wow, what a delicious soup, ah-ah, what a sweet flatbread! If only I could eat food like this every day!
“They say that work brings joy,” said the woman. “If you and I work hard, then later we will eat not only vegetable soup and thin flatbread baked in a cauldron, but also meat soup and fatir flatbread.”
“If so,” said the joyful Said, “then tell me what I should do next!” “It’s still early now,” said the woman, “maybe before evening you will collect two more bundles of herbs?”
Quickly taking a rope and a hatchet, Said immediately went to collect grass.
Said's zeal grew every day, and he began to notice that his life with such a wife was getting better and better.
One day, before Said left for work, his wife handed him the accumulated labor money and said:
— Buy a new cauldron and material for a blanket.
So Said began to spend all his free time on home improvement.
With the help of the owner of the house and at her request, he fenced his yard with a new fence, installed a new gate, renovated the house and planted the yard with different trees. One day his wife said to Said:
“I want you to invite guests.” She named several wealthy people of their city, including her ex-husband.
Said fulfilled all the wishes of his skillful wife and unquestioningly went to invite the named guests. At this time, the wife called her neighbors and, with their help, prepared a variety of delicious dishes.
So the guests began to converge and take seats around the dastarkhon. In the midst of a generous meal, one of the guests asked Said:
“We all know, Said, that you were the poorest man in our city.” Then we learned that your life has improved, and now we are convinced that you are living well. Tell us how you managed to improve your life?
“Only thanks to his skillful wife,” Said said sincerely. All the guests were surprised by Said's answer and did not want to believe him. But the former
Said's wife's husband said:
“I’m not surprised and I can believe Said, because I was convinced of this myself. I had a very hardworking and kind wife, but I did not appreciate her. And only after she left me did I know very well the value of such a woman.
And he began to say that after his wife left his house, no matter how much he hired workers, his life got worse and worse. And he did not see the satisfaction in life that he had with his wife. Immersed in memories of his former wife, he began to repent of his actions and the hurtful words he had once spoken to his wife. Judging by his slovenly appearance, everyone listening could believe that the narrator was living poorly without his former wife. And suddenly his gaze fell on the slightly opened door, where a woman who looked like his wife stood and smiled quietly. And at this time another guest asked Said:
- Where did you find such a skilled wife?
“She came to me herself,” Said answered with solemn joy.
And now it was not difficult for the bai to guess that his former hardworking and skillful wife, a jack of all trades, became Said’s wife and proved to him that she was right.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru