Once upon a time there lived a robber in a certain country. He acquired considerable wealth through robberies. But now his hour of death has come. The robber called his wife and said to her:
“Remember, when I die, give all the goods to the poor, but keep only the saber, horse and dog for yourself.” And when our son grows up, becomes strong and brave, tell him that his father’s strength was in the saber. If he takes a damask saber, he will immediately become as powerful as me. Do everything holy, wife... Well, goodbye, I'm dying.
The brave robber said this and gave his soul to God and died.
The wife did everything exactly. How she buried her husband, distributed all his wealth to the poor for the funeral of his soul, leaving only a saber, a horse and a dog - for her son when he grows up.
The boy grew and grew, and he grew up. He turned eighteen. And he began to ask where his father’s strength lay.
His mother did not dare tell him the secret, she was afraid that he would not save his father’s inheritance in such immature years.
But her son pestered her with questions every day. Like it or not, I had to tell him that my father’s strength was hidden in the saber, and even in the horse and dog.
When the robber’s son found out about this, he took his father’s saber, bridled the war horse, saddled it, whistled the dog and rode to the main square to see the people and show himself off.
The mighty horse has not been free for a long time; it rushes forward and would have soared into the sky if it weren’t for the bridle. And the boy himself doesn’t look where he’s rushing. And he accidentally knocked over the king’s son. Right there, on the spot, the prince died. The king's servants screamed, the people became alarmed - a great commotion arose, everyone rushed to catch the robber's son. When he sensed trouble, he spurred his horse. The horse rushed along the street like a gray falcon. The servants told the king everything, he set up a pursuit, but it was too late: the robber’s son was already far away.
For several days he rushed without looking back, and when the fear gradually subsided, he reined in his horse and began to think about what to do: return home or continue to ride wherever his eyes were looking. He still did not know that he could kill the entire royal army with his father’s saber if they decided to compete with him - he was afraid to return, he decided to go forward, look for some big city and settle there.
He rode and rode - for about five or six days - and suddenly saw in an open field a huge tower, all made of crystal. Oh, and that tower shone in the sun! The robber's son marveled at the wonderful tower and decided to find out what was hidden in it. I drove closer to the tower, looked around it all around - where were the doors? He searched and searched, as if there was no entrance or exit anywhere, they were so skillfully hidden. The guy looked inside through the glass - and what did he see? The beauty Dunya Guzeli is sitting in the tower.
The girl knew about her beauty, that’s why she shut herself up in the tower: she kept waiting for the greatest brave man to come to her and crush all barriers with great heroism.
- Open it, beauty! - asked the robber's son. - Open it, I’ll come in!
But the girl answered like this:
Only fit for a brave knight
Knock down the locks, break all the closures.
There is no way for the timid to enter this tower.
If you are brave, then enter without help.
If I had expected something timid,
I wouldn't sit in this tower!
The son of the robber heard these speeches, grabbed a saber from its sheath, dispersed the zealous horse and struck the tower in a raid. The crystal walls rang, the gates swung open, and the daredevil on horseback flew straight into the mansion to the girl.
Dunya Guzeli saw what a brave and handsome man appeared before her, and she guessed at first glance that he was her betrothed. She hugged him, kissed him, took him by the hand, took him to her bedroom, and they became husband and wife.
Time passed. One day Dunya Guzeli went to the bathhouse. Honor washed herself, got dressed, and when she went out into the street and stepped over the drainage ditch, her patterned shoe fell off her foot and fell into the stream. The servants rushed after him, but did not catch him - the water flowed quickly!
The shoe floated far, far away and was thrown onto the green lawn. The royal servants passed by, saw a beautiful shoe, and marveled at the wonderful patterns: it was all embroidered with pearls and gems! They also read the name of the hostess, embroidered with silk and beads.
- What a shoe! - said the royal servants. “No other way than the beauty wore it.” It was not for nothing that they called her Dunya Guzeli, which means “Beauty of the World.” Let's take the find to the king, let him have a look. Maybe we'll get a bigger reward.
And so they did. The king looked at the shoe, marveled at the wonderful embroidery, and most of all he liked the name of the owner. He rewarded his servants for the find and promised even more if they found Dunya Guzeli and brought her to the palace.
And the royal servants went to look for Dunya Guzeli in all the villages and all the cities. They asked those they met and those they met if they knew where the beauty lived. But it’s not for nothing that they say: “Language will take you to Istanbul.” They came across a man who showed them the way to the crystal tower. So the servants came there and said to the beauty:
“The king wants to take you as his wife immediately.”
Dunya Guzeli was flattered by those speeches, but still she answered:
- Here, servants, drink a glass, and go back with God. And most of all, try not to let my husband find out what you came to me with, otherwise things will be bad for you.
The king's envoys heard such words, hung their heads, returned to the king and conveyed the answer.
The king got angry and said:
- Take an army of five hundred people immediately, get the beauty by force.
They selected five hundred people from the Tsar's regiments and again moved to the tower.
Dunya Guzeli saw the army, called her husband and asked:
-Lock the gate tighter.
- Don’t be afraid, beautiful little wife, don’t be scared! - her husband answered. “As long as I’m alive, I’m not afraid of even three such troops.” Now you will see how I deal with them.
As soon as the soldiers approached the tower, he rode out to them on horseback, with a drawn saber.
- Hey! Are you, perhaps, the husband of the beautiful Dunya Guzeli?
“I am the one,” answered the robber’s son. - What do you need?
“We need your wife,” said the soldiers. “We’ll take her to the king.” Give it back if you want to stay alive, we’re telling you straight.
“I won’t give up my wife, and you can’t do anything bad to me.” Get out immediately if you value your life.
Well, of course, the soldiers took up arms. But they just didn’t know what kind of power was hidden in the treasured saber. The guy spurred his horse, waved his father's saber and cut off the enemies' heads with a single blow. He only left some people alive - so that there would be someone to tell the king about the battle.
Well, the soldiers ran to the king. He immediately equipped a second army of the same kind. But the husband of the beautiful Dunya cut down the second army as well. And several times the king sent selected soldiers to the crystal tower - the end was always the same. The king never managed to capture Dunya Guzeli.
But finally he found the old woman and ordered her to get the beauty by cunning.
“Well, I’ll get it,” answered the grandmother. “Just tell me to make a silk wagon for two people - one that would fly across the sky, take me to Dunya Guzeli, and then deliver us to you.” Then your business will come out.
The king really wanted to get a beautiful wife for himself. They built a tent for the old woman and sent her into the sky. The grandmother got to the place, hid the wagon in the bushes, went on foot to the beauty’s home and asked to spend the night, otherwise, they say, she was returning from distant lands and, unfortunately, got lost.
Dunya Guzeli heard that tearful request, and she felt sorry for the old woman; she let her into her palace, gave her something to drink, and fed her. And just then the husband returned. He looked at the old woman and was very happy: let her stay at all if she wants, otherwise Dunya Guzeli spends the whole day alone.
. “God himself brought you to us, grandmother.” If you want, stay with us instead of your mother, we will take care of you as if you were our own.
- Oh, son! Will you really warm up the old woman? You have a good soul! I'll stay! Do they seek good from good?
- Well, God bless you, grandma.
What the old woman wanted, she achieved: she became a house thief. He gets up early, sniffs around every day, looking for where the owner’s great strength lies. And she incited the wife to find out, to question her husband.
- How happy you are, daughter! Your husband is a hero! I wish I could find out, my dear, what his prowess is! You should have asked, daughter, one evening, what his brave strength is!
“Well, grandma, I’ll really ask,” Dunya Guzeli answers.
And that’s right, I asked him that same evening.
“Don’t you know, beautiful little wife, what my strength is?”
“I don’t know, how could I know if you, my lord, didn’t say a word about it!”
- So know, my strength is in the saber that I got from my father... And in the horse, and in the dog... But in the saber - most of all. As soon as I take off the saber, I become sick, and then the child will defeat me. You see, little wife, what is my strength?
That’s how Dunya Guzeli found out what her husband’s strength was, and told the cunning old woman about it.
“And that’s all I needed, beauty,” thought the feverish woman. “Now I will fulfill my promise to the king.”
And she began to watch, as if to steal the master's saber and hide it. But it’s not for nothing that they say: “Even the water sleeps, but the devil never sleeps.” The villainess took a moment, took the saber off the nail at night and threw it into a deep pool. The young man immediately fell ill.
“Don’t worry, daughter,” said the old woman to Dunya Guzeli. “If I’m here, then we’ll get rid of the grief.” Don’t worry, don’t worry, let’s go into the forest and look for medicinal herbs. Give the sick person a herbal decoction on an empty stomach for three days - all the illness will go away.
The beauty, together with the old woman Judas, went into the forest to look for medicinal herbs, and the vile grandmother quickly lured her to the tent itself, secretly set up the tent for departure and began to persuade Dunya Gyuzeli to come in and see: what kind of thing did they find - did it grow from the ground, or did it fall from the sky? The grandmother entered first, Dunya Gyuzeli came in after her - the wagon immediately took off.
Trouble! Then Dunya Guzeli realized that her grandmother had deceived her, and at first she was terribly scared: was the grandmother a witch or maybe some kind of mermaid?
The beauty is crying:
- Unhappy me! What will happen to me now! Why did you do this, grandma? What bad things have you seen from me? Why did you lift me into the clouds and carry me to God knows where?
- Don't be afraid, daughter! - said the grandmother. - I don’t wish you harm. I want to make you a queen, you will live in the royal chambers, and not in the wild desert. I'm telling the truth, don't be afraid.
The carriage flew and flew and reached the royal palace. They went down to the ground, and Grandma took Dunya Guzeli to the king. When the king saw her, he was stupefied, his heart began to pound: he really liked the beauty. But Dunya Guzeli didn’t like him: he was old and painfully homely. She looks at him, and it’s as if a fierce enemy is in front of her, and not a king in a gilded dress, in a crown and with a scepter in his hand. But even though he’s not to my heart’s content, there’s nothing to be done now. Power has no truth!
- Well, beauty, see? Even though your husband killed a lot of my troops, you still fell into my hands! Now we'll get married, you'll become a queen.
“You know, this is my destiny,” answered the beauty. - I will marry you... Only you, king, first arrange, as it should be, a forty-day announcement and order everyone to go to the palace to honor me and admire my beauty. And here’s what else I’ll tell you: I know a wondrous remedy, I can turn you, king, into a young man. When you turn twenty-five, then we’ll get married. OK?
The king listened to her speech, agreed to everything, set a wedding day and began to expect that he would become young again. And Dunya Guzeli was deliberately cunning in order to gain time, hoping that her husband would find out, come and save her from misfortune.
What is he doing, poor guy, sick, lonely?
His horse neighed, his dog barked - they both asked for food. But the guy can’t even get up. He realized then that this was the old woman’s machinations. He says:
“Listen, dog, my faithful friend, look where the damn grandmother hid the treasured saber, otherwise, perhaps, I will die untimely.”
The dog heard his words, felt sorry for the owner and rushed to look for the saber. I searched and searched, but it was nowhere to be found. Finally he ran to the pool, saw a saber at the bottom, dived once, twice and a third time - he couldn’t get it. He jumped into the water many times - he finally grabbed the saber and brought it to his master. He took it in his hands and immediately corrected himself. He fed the horse and dog and set off: he rushed to look for his wife throughout the state, from city to city, from village to village. And when he rode to the capital and heard about the royal wedding, he immediately guessed who the Tsar’s bride was, and learned that the Tsar would soon become very young, twenty-five years old, and would get married right away. The young man, whose whole idea this was, immediately understood, did not waste time, went to the outskirts of the city to see an old woman he knew, gave her a lot of money and ordered her to quickly sew three dresses - for her and for her two daughters, let them dress more smartly and go look at the Tsar’s bride and do honor to her, as prescribed by the Tsar’s decree.
The old woman quickly called the skilled tailor. Two days later all the dresses were ready. The grandmother and daughters immediately dressed up and went with the guy to the royal mansion to look at the bride. They came to her. The beauty immediately recognized her husband and took him to another room, where the men were feasting, and along the way she hid him in her bedchamber - in a spacious closed niche. She treated the women to their hearts content and sent them home, saying that the guy would come later, after them.
And it was on the eve of the fortieth day. Everyone was looking forward to him: everyone wanted to see how the king would miraculously transform and suddenly look younger.
The evening of the thirty-ninth day arrived. The old king came to the darkened bedroom to lie next to Dunya Guzeli and become young. And the doors of the niche swung open, the robber’s son jumped out, waved his saber and cut off the king’s head. They hid the dead man in a secret place, and in the morning Dunya Guzeli came out to the people, and next to her appeared a handsome and young king of twenty-five years old.
The people were amazed at the great miracle. And Dunya Guzeli and her husband, the son of a robber, became king and queen in this country.
That's it: don't dig a hole for someone else, you'll fall into it yourself.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru