Once upon a time there lived a king, and he had no son. He called the saint and asked him to pray to God to grant him an heir. And soon the king had a son, whom he named Lal Badshah.
Lal Badshah grew up and said to his father:
- Marry me, father, to the girl I choose for myself.
“Bring all the girls to the palace, and I will marry my son to the one he likes,” the king gave an order to his subjects.
Girls from all over the kingdom gathered in the palace. Lal Badshah looked at them, but he didn’t like any of them.
One old woman saw these scenes. She approached Lal Badshah and said:
— In a certain state there is a king named Anwar Badshah. And you, Lal Badshah, will take only his daughter as your wife, and no one else.
Lal Badshah heard these words and went to his father:
“I will go, father, to look for King Anwar Badshah in order to marry his daughter.”
“Don’t go, it’s very far,” said the king.
But Lal Badshah did not listen to his father. And then the king says to the vizier:
- He will do it his own way anyway. Let him go, and you go with him.
Lal Badshah set off with the vizier. They drove for a long time and finally reached the country of Anwar Badshah.
At the entrance to the capital city, they met four beggars collecting branches in the forest. Lal Badshah spoke to them. The beggars ask him who he is and why he came.
“My name is Lal Badshah, I am the king’s son and I came here to marry the daughter of Anwar Badshah.
“We are all kings too, and we once came here to marry Anwar Badshah’s daughter. Do you see how it ended? - the beggars laughed.
Lal Badshah was surprised and began to ask how this could happen.
— To everyone who comes to woo the princess, Anwar Badshah says: “Fill the well with money, and I will give you my daughter.” We gave away all our wealth, but we could not fill the well. And now we collect the branches, sell them and buy ourselves some food, at least for the evening. The same fate awaits you,” the beggars said.
“I will not give up, no matter what happens to me,” Lal Badshah told them.
He came to Anwar Badshah, talked with him, and he said to him:
- Fill the well with money, and I will give my daughter for you. Lal Badshah sent the vizier to his father with a request to give him money so that he could fill the well with it and be able to marry the daughter of Anwar Badshah.
The father guessed that we were talking about a well that could not be filled with money. “We must resort to witchcraft,” he thought, “then it will be possible to fulfill this condition.” He sent for the sorcerer and said to him:
- Come up with a witchcraft that can be used to fill a well with money.
“Give me a rupee, I’ll do some magic on it and give it back to you.” You put it in a bag and put another thousand rupees in it. With this money it will be possible to fill the well,” the sorcerer answers.
The king gave the vizier a bag of money, and he took it to Lal Badshah. Lal Badshah poured the money into the well, filled it and demanded the king’s daughter.
They celebrated the wedding, and Anwar Badshah began to escort the young people out of his possessions.
Lal Badshah called the vizier and told him:
- Go to your father, thank him and tell him that I am returning home with my wife.
Soon after the vizier's departure, Lal Badshah also set out. He once left his young wife under a large tree, and he himself went to buy some food. I went to the meman and started asking what products he had. Meman asked Lal Badshah what region he was from, and, learning that he was from afar, remarked:
[Meman is a merchant from the Muslim Meman trading caste.]
— You have a very beautiful ring on your hand. Give it to me for a moment, I will take it to the goldsmith so that he can make the same for me. And when I return, I will sell you products.
Lal Badshah took off the ring and gave it to meman. He hurried to his wife, showed the ring and said:
“Your husband told me to tell you that he decided to stay here for two or three days.” Let's go to him.
The young woman recognized the ring, took the horses and went after the meman. And he took her to his house and hid her.
Soon he returned to the shop, returned the ring to Lal Badshah and sold him the food.
Lal Badshah came to the place where he had left his wife, but found neither her nor the horses. And Lal Badshah became a beggar. He wanders around the city without a wife and without money.
And Meman began to prepare for the wedding with Lal Badshah’s wife. The wife of Lal Badshah called an old woman to her and said to her:
“Go around the city, look among the poor people and fakirs for a person who has a ring,” and she said which one. - If you find it, you will get forty rupees.
[Fakir - poor man, beggar, hermit.]
Soon the old woman found a fakir with such a ring and asked who he was. The fakir told her what happened to him.
The old woman returned home and told Lal Badshah’s wife about everything. She gave two hundred rupees to her husband through the old woman and ordered him to get a good camel, drive up to the meman’s house at night and pick her up.
Lal Badshah bought a camel and, when night fell, drove up to the meman’s house, sat down next to him, began to wait, and soon fell asleep. At this time, a thief passed by and saw a camel sleeping and next to him. The thief untied the camel and was just about to take it away when a woman came out of the house and said to him:
- Let's leave here as soon as possible.
In the darkness, she mistook the thief for Lal Badshah. The thief climbed onto the camel, sat her down next to him and set off. But Lal Badshah never woke up.
They drove all night, and when dawn came, the young woman saw that it was not Lal Badshah who was taking her, but some stranger. Soon they stopped at a well. She told the stranger that she was hungry, and while he was collecting twigs, she took the shoe off her foot and threw it into the well. And when the stranger returned, she said to him:
“I dropped my shoe into the well, get it out.”
The thief climbed into the well, and Lal Badshah's wife sat on the camel and rode back.
Four horsemen came towards her, and each of them shouted:
- I take this woman for myself!
- There are four of you, and I am alone and I can only marry one of you. But first, tie up your horses, take off your weapons and put them and your clothes here. And then run to that tree over there. “I will marry the one who comes running first,” said the woman.
They got off their horses, took off their weapons, undressed and ran. And Lal Badshah's wife collected their clothes and weapons, killed the horses and, mounting her camel, disappeared. Soon she reached the river bank, tied the camel to a tree and lay down to rest. And then she set off again. And then she arrived in some city.
Not long before this, the ruler of the city died, and on the gate it was written: “Whoever opens the gate first and enters the city will become its ruler.” She opened the gates, entered the city first and became its queen.
Meanwhile, Lal Badshah followed the camel's tracks in search of his wife. Meman followed in his footsteps. The thief climbed out of the well and also followed the tracks, followed by four horsemen. All seven came to the city.
The queen ordered that every stranger who arrived in the city be brought to her. Soon all seven men were taken to the palace.
“Bring them to me one by one, I want to talk to each one separately,” the queen ordered.
Lal Badshah was introduced first.
“Tell me what happened to you,” asked the queen. From his story, she realized that this was her husband.
Then the meman, the thief and four horsemen entered in turn. They all told their stories.
- Hang the meman and the thief. “And give these four horses, weapons, clothes and let them out of the city,” the queen ordered.
“And you are my husband,” she said, turning to Lal Badshah, “I am your wife.” This city belongs to you, own it and let there be peace.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru