Once upon a time there lived a deceiver. He constantly forced orphans and servants to work for him for nothing. When they demanded payment for their work, the bai would invent some kind of slander, declare them debtors, and until they worked off a new false debt, the bai would not let them out of his clutches. And if one of the workers worked off such a debt, the bai would invent a new lie and assign a double debt. So the bai's hired workers could not get rid of him until his death.
Finally, with his tricks, the Bai reached the point that no one agreed to become his farm laborers. No matter who he invited to work with him, they told him: “You are a deceiver, you are a slanderer,” and they did not agree to go to him. And no matter what promises he made, no one believed him.
Finally, all his old workers died, and he was left without a single servant or assistant.
One day he called the poor people of his village to the mosque and, in front of the imam, swore to divorce his wife that he would pay money to the worker who came to work for him and would not slander him.
But the poor people did not believe him and said: “Someone like you cannot fulfill his vows.”
Then the bai thought and thought and came up with another deception. A little boy lived in a village without a father and without a mother. Bai lured the boy to his home and told him:
“Son, you don’t have a father, and I don’t have a son.” If you live in my house and help me in everything, then I will adopt you, and I will marry my only five-year-old daughter to you when she grows up. You will become my son-in-law. And after my death, all my wealth will go to you.
Having said this, the bai brought his daughter and showed her to the orphan.
“This beautiful girl is my beloved daughter, she will later be your wife,” he said.
The orphan boy agreed to accept the bai's offer and on the same day became his assistant.
Days, weeks, months and years passed, the orphan worked for the bai conscientiously, like a son. He considered the Bai's profit to be his profit, he considered the Bai's loss to be his loss and said: “Since I will be his son-in-law, all his property will then be mine.” He liked the little bai's daughter. He made various toys for her and entertained her with pleasant and interesting conversations.
The girl also sincerely fell in love with the entertaining storyteller, an affectionate and polite boy, and did not want to be without him for a minute.
The girl has become an adult. Knowing that her father promised to make the orphan her son-in-law, she began to treat him as a future husband and life friend. Every day she loved him more and more, tried to help him in his work, wanting to make his work easier, and if before she called him brother, now she began to add “dear” to this word.
The orphan became so attached to the bai's daughter that it was difficult for him to part with her even for an hour. When he left home for the field, it seemed to him that he had something very expensive left at home. He constantly turned to the bai’s house, unable to take his eyes off him. He worked even harder and better than before for the bai in order to appease him and so that he would arrange the wedding as soon as possible.
Bai treated the orphan well. When I entrusted him with work, he did not say, for example, “weed the cotton” or “cut the wheat,” but said “weed your cotton,” “cut your wheat.”
The girl finally became overcome with impatience, and she told the orphan to ask his father through someone to speed up their wedding.
Sirota did not agree with her.
“It’s better to let him arrange the wedding himself without my request,” he said. When the girl turned seventeen, many matchmakers began to come.
woo her. At this time, she stood outside the door and observed her mother’s behavior. This is how she learned that her mother did not reject a single matchmaking and did not tell anyone that “her daughter already has a groom.” Even more than that, the mother talked to the matchmakers about the expenses of the wedding, praised her daughter and said:
“If this is her fate, then we can’t find better matchmakers than you.” And the father said:
“I was one of the first to come to these places and ate a lot of food at weddings. My daughter needs ten measures of rice and much more for her wedding. Of course, wedding clothes and wedding expenses must correspond to the bride, and if the matchmaker can prepare all this, then if we had not one daughter, but a hundred, we would give them to you..
Hearing all this, the daughter guessed that her parents would never marry her to an orphan, that they were looking for a rich groom to sell her for the highest price. Therefore, she rather told her betrothed about the matchmaking and her parents’ answers.
“Hurry up and demand me from your father,” she told him, “if you don’t take me as your wife and my father gives me to someone else, I will not live in the world.”
“If your father does not marry you to me, I will commit suicide before you!” exclaimed the young man. And he immediately went to the imam of their village, told him about his intentions and the promises of the bai and asked the imam to be an intermediary between him and the bai.
The imam agreed to fulfill the orphan’s request and told the bai everything. In response, the bai laughed and said:
- Allow me to answer the orphan myself. Having met the orphan, the bai said to him with a laugh:
“My son, don’t worry and don’t send anyone to me, I’ll take a look around and start preparing for your wedding.” Don't be suspicious of the arrival of matchmakers. Luckily for you, the girl is not unattractive, which is why matchmakers come to our house. We don’t want to offend anyone, that’s why we don’t tell the matchmakers: “Go away, we won’t give you our daughter.” As they say: “The price paid for a girl who is not married off is difficult.” So we raise the price for it and send the matchmakers away without offense.
The orphan believed these words of the bai, he himself assured the bride of them and, having reassured her, began to work for the bai even more and better.
One day, a whole caravan of camels appeared at the bai’s gate, the blankets and bedding on which were made of brand new carpets, and silver trinkets jingled on their necks, tails and knees. Sacks of rice, sugar, candy and halwa were lying on several camels; satin, silk, velvet and gold-woven clothes were piled on several camels. The luggage was removed from the camels brought right to the gate and taken to the bai's house.
It was clear to everyone that the bai had betrothed his daughter to some rich man, all these things meant the beginning of the wedding and that the engagement celebration was near.
At the sight of this, the orphan's eyes grew dim and his head began to spin, as if the sky had fallen on him. He felt such pain, as if a heavy millstone, like wheat, was grinding his trembling body into flour. At first the young man wanted to take his own life, but suddenly he thought: “It’s never too late to kill yourself, now I need to fight for myself and for the girl until my last breath. If I don’t achieve my goal, then I’ll kill myself.”
While everyone was busy carrying the trousseau and looking at the outfits of the bride and groom, the orphan walked to the women's quarters, beckoned to the girl and took her aside.
As soon as she met him face to face, she began to cry, showed him the knife hidden in her dress and said:
“I’m looking for an opportunity to stick it in my chest!”
“And I wanted to do the same, but a good idea came to my mind that would help free both of us.”
Hearing this, the girl hugged the orphan, kissed him for the first time and said:
- Quickly tell me what you have in mind, I’m afraid to die of joy without hearing about our salvation!
- Now, wait. You must appear to your father and mother and the people around you to be happy with the upcoming wedding. But be ready to escape yourself. At the first opportunity, I will secretly make my way to you, and we will run away. I myself cannot stay at the wedding, it’s very difficult for me. I'll go somewhere, hide, waiting for the right moment. And after the engagement, I want to meet your father again and demand payment for my twelve years of work. He swore to divorce his wife, so he must give me what I am entitled to.
But I will ask this only so that after the escape we will be provided for for the first time.
Having said this, the orphan left the village and a few days after the engagement returned and met the bai at the mosque, where he was sitting with the imam, surrounded by rich people.
The orphan approached the bai and said:
- Uncle Bai, I ate a lot of your bread and salt, I processed a lot of your work, you should be satisfied with me. Now, if you paid me my share, I would consider it your last good deed, I would be very grateful to you.
“What share?” the bai asked angrily.
- A share for twelve years of work, the share that you promised me in front of the imam with an oath of divorce from my wife.
Bai widened his eyes, but said softly:
- If you ask for your share, I will give it to you. In the morning I took half a sack of wheat out of the barn for grinding, it remained at the door. Here, take this wheat.
“Have I only earned half a bag of wheat in twelve years?” Do you want to pollute your honest wife with such things?
Hearing the words of the orphan, the bai was afraid of being dishonored by “divorcing his wife” in the presence of strangers and hastily, with a plea for help, looked at the imam, who witnessed his oath.
The imam immediately came to the aid of the bai and asked the orphan:
— When the bai hired you, how much did he promise to pay you every year?
“He didn’t promise anything, he just said that he would make me his son-in-law,” he answered.
— A promise to make a son-in-law is not payment for work. How much cattle or money were you supposed to give you each year?
“Nothing was allowed,” said the orphan.
“Very good,” said the imam, “if so, that will be considered payment for your work.” whatever the bai finds necessary. Now he wants to give you half a bag of wheat, be happy with it and take it. If he gave you even half a bowl of wheat, you would not have the right to demand more, and with this he could atone for his oath. According to Sharia, since you were paid and were not forced to work for free, the bai’s wife will not be considered divorced.
Listening to the Sharia tricks of the imam, the orphan boiled with indignation, but one thought came to his mind, and, calming himself down, he said to the bai:
- Okay, everything that you found necessary to give me, I agree to take, but if... I will go and take wheat, but your wife does not want to give it, then what should I do?
- If she doesn’t believe you, tell her to go out the gate and look in my direction, I’ll make a sign to her, “give it back,” they say.
The orphan ran to the bai's house, saddled his horse and said to his wife:
“Uncle Bai ordered to take the flour to the mill, he also ordered to take his sister so that she could look at the mill before the wedding, tell your sister to get ready and go out.”
“You’re lying!” said the bai’s wife, “he will never send our adult, newly betrothed daughter with you!”
“If you don’t believe me, go outside the gate and ask him yourself,” said the orphan.
The bai's wife threw a scarf over her head and walked out of the gate with the orphan. From the bay's gate, men were visible sitting and talking near the mosque. The orphan made a sign with his hand and loudly shouted to the boy:
- She doesn’t believe me and won’t give it to me!
Bai raised his hand high, made a sign and shouted loudly to his wife:
- Okay, let him take it!
The orphan ran into the yard, loaded the horse with wheat, sat in the saddle and placed the girl in front of him, who was always ready, waiting for the right moment. The young man quickly drove his horse away from the mosque. When the bai found out about such a trick and sent a chase, the orphan and the girl disappeared without a trace. They went to a distant land, stayed there and were happy.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru