In ancient times, a certain man called his son to him and gave him three instructions: never take orphans into your house to raise, but support them outside your family; do not lend money to someone who is richer than you; Never reveal your innermost thoughts to your wife.
Having given these instructions to his son, he asked him to fulfill them religiously and not to violate them under any circumstances, since violating them would put him in a difficult position more than once.
Soon the father died, and the son wanted to experience the truth of his father’s instructions in life. He took orphans into his house to raise. Then he lent money to the khan, who was richer than him. He supported the orphans well and did not offend them in any way.
The agreed period passed, and he began to ask the khan to pay the debt. The Khan got angry, ordered his servants to beat him and also threatened him:
- What money are you talking about? If you remind me of your debt one more time, then big trouble will befall your head!
The angry poor man, in revenge, stole a herd of the khan's horses and put his tamga on them. But he didn’t stop there. Considering that this revenge was not enough for the khan, he decided to kidnap his son from him as well. So he did: he kidnapped the khan’s only son and sent him to school to study.
Khan began to look for his son and horses that had been stolen from him. His search was in vain, and then he turned to the healer for help and advice:
“I don’t find my son and the horses that were stolen from me!” - he told her. - Such a thing has never happened! Help me!
The healer told him:
- Do not look for them in vain and do not demand them from anyone except the one from whom you borrowed money and did not pay.
The Khan needed to make sure of this, and he asked the healer to find out from the poor man’s wife whether her husband had really kidnapped his son and horses.
The healer came to the poor man’s wife’s home and, as if sympathizing with her, said:
“Your husband suffered innocently, he asked to pay the debt, and the rich khan ordered him to be beaten.”
The poor man's wife responded by saying to the healer:
“I don’t know anything about this, my husband didn’t tell me anything.”
- What kind of wife are you in this case, if your husband does not let you in on his affairs! - the healer tells her.
So she left this time without learning anything. In the evening, the poor man's wife offendedly told her husband about the visit to the healer. He only answered her this way:
- Whoever gets what belongs to him.
The next day the healer again appeared to the poor man’s wife and asked:
- Well, again you didn’t learn anything?
“He only told me this,” she answered: “Whoever gets what, let it benefit him!”
The overjoyed healer hurried to appear to the khan and said to him:
“Didn’t I tell you that your horses and son are with the one from whom you borrowed money and did not pay!”
Then the khan calls the poor man to him and asks him:
- Are my son and horses with you?
- I have! - the poor man answers.
“In that case, I cede my khanate to you, you should be the khan, not me.”
Meanwhile, the orphans, whom the poor man took into his family and did not offend in any way, took up arms against him, looking for an opportunity to kill him. And the poor man said:
- How right my father was! From my own experience I was convinced of the truthfulness of his instructions.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru