Whether it happened or not, they say that in ancient times there lived one man named Mehziyar. He was poor and thought only about how to eat his fill, save at least a couple of copper coins for a rainy day, and someday appear before God. And now his dreams came true.
One day, on a frosty winter night, he was sitting in his hut and suddenly heard a goat, which had fallen behind the herd, knocking on the door with its horns. Mehziyar let the goat in, sheltered it and began to take care of it.
After two or three months, the goat gave birth to two kids. And the next year the kids grew up and also brought two kids. In this way, Mehziyar raised a large herd of goats and became a rich man. He built himself a good house and grew a garden. But his heart was not kind, and he did not help the poor and beggars at all. He put aside one coin after another - dirham after dirham, dinar after dinar, and raised many fat, well-fed chickens and roosters. From time to time he cut them and ate them.
One day Mehziyar noticed that his chickens and roosters were disappearing somewhere. It turned out that a jackal had settled in the neighborhood - a threat to poultry. Every night he would sneak into the yard, grab one or two chickens, strangle them, drag them into his hole and eat them there. Mehziyar did not know who was doing this - the jackal was a very clever thief. Finally Mehziyar moved his chicken coop to another location; he locked the birds in the barn and drove the goats and sheep into the yard.
At night, the jackal saw that instead of chickens and roosters there were goats and sheep in the yard. He was overcome with frustration, but then he decided that with the help of the wolf he could carry goats and sheep instead of chickens. But it was dangerous to trust the wolf, and the jackal began to watch Mehziyar’s house alone. He soon learned that Mehziyar was going to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.
One day, early in the morning, the jackal washed his face and paws and came to Mehziyar’s house. As a sign of respect, the jackal kissed the ground, folded his paws on his chest and knelt down in front of his owner.
- Hey, jackal! What do you need? Why did you come? - asked his owner.
- I came to greet you. I heard that you are going on a pilgrimage. If you take me as your servant, I will guard the house in your absence.
“I kept worrying about who would entrust the supervision of the herd so that my goats and sheep would not be stolen and slaughtered,” thought Mehziyar. “If I entrust my herd to a man, he will come up with many tricks and in the month of Esfend (Esfend is the twelfth month of the Iranian solar year, falling on February 21 - March 21.) when a thousand sheep give birth to lambs, he will take at least a hundred for himself. It’s good that he showed up. a four-legged jackal; he will look after my cattle."
“Hey, jackal,” the owner turned to the jackal, “I would really like to take you with me to visit a holy place together and kiss its threshold.” You would sweep around with your tail, and I would sweep around with my beard. But if you stay here and watch over my flock, it will be better. You can go to Mecca when I return from there.
The jackal was very happy:
“Okay,” he said, “let’s do that.” A few days later, Mehziyar entrusted the herd to the jackal, and he himself began to prepare for the journey.
Having learned about this, the sheep became very alarmed and began to say to Mehziyar:
- Hey, Mehziyar! A jackal of the wolf breed, he will eat us!
But Mehziyar reassured them:
“Not everyone of the wolf breed eats sheep.” Dogs, for example, are also of the wolf breed, but they are your guards.
On the day when Mehziyar got into the kejava (a special device for traveling on camels) and left the gates of Balkh, the jackal went into the barn to look at the sheep and went in search of the wolf, with whom he had been friends since childhood. The jackal told the wolf everything and led him to the sheep.
That same day they ripped open the bellies of five sheep and ate them together. As soon as the goats saw this, they immediately ran away and mixed with the goats of other herds, but the lazy sheep remained, and the jackal and the wolf ate them one after another.
Days passed, followed by months. The year has come to an end. The news spread throughout the city that the pilgrims were returning safely. The jackal thought about what answer he would give to Mekhziyar. He didn’t have time to come up with anything when Mehziyar returned home and went to check on his sheep.
The jackal began to cry, moan and with tears turned to Mehziyar:
- Oh master! Do you know what happened to us after you left? In the very first month, we heard a rumor that everyone traveling with the caravan became seriously ill, and many died. I was very afraid and made a vow, if you returned healthy, to slaughter a hundred sheep and distribute the meat to the poor and needy. The next day, having learned that you were alive and well, I immediately slaughtered a hundred sheep and distributed the meat to the hungry.
The next month news came that the caravan had lost its way, fell into the sands and a hundred people had died of thirst. I again promised God, if you remained alive and well, to slaughter a hundred fat sheep and send the meat to the houses of poor widows. Thank God, the next day the news reached us that nothing bad happened to you. I slaughtered another hundred sheep.
In the third month, news came that the caravan was attacked by robbers and killed eighty people. This time I promised, if you were not one of them, to slaughter two hundred sheep. How glad I was when I learned that you were not among those killed!
Finally they said that a man came to the city and brought news of your death. I began to shed tears, sob, put on mourning for you and in your memory distributed two hundred sheep to the poor. But two days ago another man came and brought new news: he said that you were alive and well and that you would come home tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. With joy, I could not contain myself, I slaughtered all the remaining sheep and distributed them to the poor in honor of your return. I am very glad that I see you safe and sound again!
- Hey, scoundrel! - Mekhziyar shouted. “And you think that I believed your stories?!” I swear to God, at dawn I will make a kebab out of you!
He immediately took off his cloth belt, threw it around the jackal’s neck and dragged him to the tree. There he hung the jackal by the tail.
“Hang here until the morning,” he said, “and in the morning I will hang you by the neck!”
The jackal realized that he was caught. Mehziyar felt very sorry for his sheep, and, of course, tomorrow he will hang him. The jackal had no choice but to sacrifice his tail. He began to chew the tail with his teeth and finally chewed it off at dawn. The tail broke off and the jackal fell to the ground.
Hearing a strange sound, Mehziyar ran out of the house to see what had happened. He saw that the tail of a jackal was hanging on a tree, and the jackal itself was running away.
- Hey, jackal! - Mekhziyar shouted after him. “Even if you turn into a bird and fly into the sky, or become a fish and swim away into the sea, you will still fall into my hands.” Now you have a good omen - you are tailless!
The jackal realized that things were bad and that he, tailless, would be easy to find. And he began to think about how to make other jackals tailless, so that if necessary, he could get lost among them.
He walked and wandered for a long time and finally came across a garden. Then he climbed up the hill and howled. Fifty to sixty jackals immediately gathered around him, and he said to them:
- Hey, jackals! I take care of you day and night, and I am very sorry that you are starving. I found a nice garden; beautiful fruits grow in it: pears, grapes - in a word, everything you could want. Go there and eat as much as you like!
The jackals followed him. He led them into the garden, and he ran to the gardener and said to him:
— A flock of jackals got into your garden; they devour and trample fruits. You alone cannot cope with them. Out of good will towards you, I want to advise you on what needs to be done so that the jackals forget the way to you.
- What is this?
- Pretend that you are cheerful and satisfied, and tell them: “Eat as much fruit as you want, but on one condition: let each of you choose a branch or tree for yourself and eat it, and I will tie you to these trees by your tails. When you have eaten your fill, I will untie you and you can go anywhere.” The jackals will agree, you tie them all to the trees by their tails, and the rest is up to me.
The gardener did everything as the jackal taught him and left.
An hour later, a tailless jackal appeared in the garden and said to his comrades:
- Do you know where the gardener went?
- No!
“He wants to call the peasants to come here with sticks and clubs.”
The jackals got scared. Some said:
- You're making it up!
Others asked:
- What should we do?
“If life is dear to you, you must gnaw your tails - you have no other choice,” said the tailless jackal.
And the jackals began to gnaw their tails and fall from the trees to the ground, trying to escape before the gardener arrived.
Now listen to Mehziyar. He became very angry with the jackal and began to think of ways to punish him.
“I must definitely catch the jackal,” he thought, “cut off his ears and nose, tie him with a rope and lead him through the streets and bazaars to disgrace him in front of everyone. Let people know that an animal cannot be friends with a person.”
He picked up a stick and went to look for the tailless jackal. But no matter how much he looked for it, he could not find it anywhere. And suddenly, on the slope of one hill, he somehow saw a tailless jackal. Mehziyar raised his stick and wanted to smash his head, but the jackal ran back a little and said:
- I didn't do anything wrong to you. Why do you want to harm me?
“You didn’t do anything bad to me?!” Why, you ate all my chickens and roosters, all my sheep!
“It was another jackal, not me.”
“You have a sign,” said Mehziyar, “you are without a tail.”
The jackal laughed:
- This is how the innocent are caught instead of the guilty! If one tailless jackal caused you harm, what are the others to blame? In our family, all males do not have tails. If you don’t believe me, stay here a little and see for yourself.
The jackal howled, and immediately tailless jackals began running towards him from everywhere.
Mehziyar was ashamed and said:
- Forgive me, I didn’t know that you were born tailless.
But the jackals, suspecting their comrade of deception, replied:
“We weren’t born tailless, we gnawed our tails to save ourselves from trouble.”
“Tell me how it was,” Mekhziyar asked.
The jackals told him everything from beginning to end, and Mehziyar realized that these were the tricks of that same jackal.
- Oh wretch! What a mean thing you did to your comrades in order to save your own skin!
Then the jackals realized that they had all been deceived. With their help, Mehziyar grabbed a tailless jackal and hung it on a strong branch so that other animals would be discouraged from doing this.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru