Whether it was or not, there lived in ancient times one Khakan (a ruler from a Turkic dynasty). One day he was walking through his palace, entered the kitchen and saw a young beautiful girl sitting, peeling onions. The hakan approached her, but she didn’t pay any attention and continued working. Hakan really liked the girl. He didn’t say anything to her, went up to his chambers and shouted to one of the slaves:
“Go to the kitchen and bring me the girl who peels the onions,” he said.
The slave girls took the girl to the bathhouse, bathed her, dressed her in a beautiful dress and brought her to the hakan.
“What’s the difference between your situation now and then when you were peeling the onions?” - asks the hakan.
And the girl responded:
- Such is my happiness, hakan!
Hakan did not like the girl’s words and ordered her to be taken back to the kitchen to peel the onions again.
A little time passed, and the hakan remembered the beautiful girl and came to the kitchen again. The girl was still working. Without telling her anything, he again ordered the slaves:
- Buy the girl and bring her to me! The girl was bathed, dressed up and brought to the hakan.
- Is there a difference now? he asked.
“This is the dictate of fate,” the girl answers. Hakan got angry and called the servants:
“Take this girl’s clothes and throw her head into the sea,” he ordered.
The poor thing was immediately stripped and thrown into the sea.
But when the girl was floundering in the water, an old fisherman was next to her and saved her. He dressed her in old pants and a jacket - he had no other clothes - and asked:
- Who robbed you and threw you into the sea?
- Hakan! - the girl answers. She told everything to the old man and asked:
- Baba, what is your name?
“Tali Baba,” the fisherman answers.
[Tali - Turkish for “happiness”, “fate”]
- So, let me be your daughter, and you be my father! - said the girl.
“Okay,” Tali Baba agreed.
The fisherman brought the girl to his house on the island, and they began to live there. The old man was glad that God had sent him this girl. “This is my destiny,” he said. The girl looked after her named father, cooked for him, sewed, and washed.
One day she went into the valley to dig up white beets, began to tear apart the roots, and suddenly the knife touched some kind of iron lid. The girl opened it with curiosity and saw a stone staircase descending underground. She was not at all afraid and said: “This is my destiny!” - went downstairs. She sees that there are many different rooms in front of her, she entered the outermost one, and the room is full of jewelry. She quickly collected gold, diamonds, emeralds, and yachts in her bosom and returned home. An old fisherman came home and saw a pile of diamonds in front of the girl.
- This is my destiny! - says the girl.
“Your destiny is apparently a great treasure,” the old man answered, laughing.
Having sold these jewelry, they built a beautiful palace on the island and hired servants. And in the city the girl opened a house where the poor were fed dinners at noon and in the evening. Everyone loved the new rich girl because she helped everyone.
The hakan heard rumors about the wonderful palace and the beauty of its owner. One day, taking the shahzade with him, he got into a boat and sailed to the island. Here he was met by Tali Baba and a girl. The Khakan looked at the girl and immediately recognized her.
- How did you build this palace? - asks the hakan.
- My destiny, Khakan! - the girl answers.
“You are probably a girl with a big, kind heart, that’s why fate became your friend.” Be happy! - says the hakan.
Meanwhile, Shahzadeh did not take his eyes off the girl. They began to treat them, serving all sorts of rare dishes. Even in his palace, the Khakan did not eat anything like this. The hakan was jealous and wanted to do something bad to the girl again, but his son prevented this.
- This girl is my destiny, dear father! - he said. “Father, I fell in love with this girl and must marry her.”
- Your destiny, my son! - answered the father, laughing. Shahzade thanked his father, the girl was told. The girl agreed and married the hakan’s son. They celebrated their wedding on the island and in the palace for forty days and nights and achieved their happiness.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru