Three merchants were passing by a village and decided to stop in a clearing, give the horse a rest and take a little rest themselves. And in that clearing, the village children were herding cows and calves. The boys were having fun and making noise. Only one sat on the sidelines and did not participate in the general fun.
A passing merchant says to his companions:
- Do you see the guy sitting with his head propped up on his hand, thinking about something?
“We see,” they answered. - What's so surprising about that? The boy is lost in thought and sits, resting his head on his hand.
“It seems to me that that boy is a man of considerable intelligence; it is not right for him to remain a simple shepherd boy.” He would have become a major merchant, or even a king.
They called the boy over and asked where he was from, whether his mother and father were alive. The boy replied that there is great poverty in their family, his old mother lives with him, the whole economy is in decline, and it is impossible to improve it: there is not a lot of money in the shepherd’s wallet. That's what he was thinking about, sitting away from everyone.
- Well, wasn't I right? No wonder I praised the boy? - said the merchant. “Today in the evening we’ll go to his house, talk to his mother - let him apprentice him to us.” And we would take care of him, we would make him a man. It’s simply a sin for such a smart guy to remain a shepherd all his life.
Both of his comrades agreed with him and asked the boy to take them to his home. He willingly led them.
The shepherd boy's mother met the guests on the threshold.
“Good evening, venerable lady,” said the merchants. “Would you allow us to be your guests today?”
- Well, you are welcome, sons, make yourself at home. Just don’t blame me: I have nothing to regale you with. We don't even have bread for dinner.
“Let us stay, mother, but don’t worry about dinner,” answered the passers-by.
Well, they entered the house, gave the boy money, and told him to buy all sorts of food for dinner. And after having a hearty and tasty dinner, they started a conversation with the old woman: would she send her son to apprenticeship - to their shop. They promised to help him get out into the world, and she herself was given money so that she could live comfortably for a whole year, and they promised to send more when the time came. Seeing so much money in the hands of the merchants, the old woman agreed. She didn’t really want to give the boy into unfamiliar hands, but, apparently, money is sometimes more valuable than her own son.
The merchants spent the night under the old woman's roof, and the next morning they took her boy and went to the city - the journey was not short, it took six hours to travel. And that city was the capital, the king lived there.
The merchants settled the boy at the shop and began teaching him to read and write. The boy learned everything quickly. And when he began to trade a little in the shop, they couldn’t get enough of him. Everyone who saw him was amazed at his skill. Buyers poured in, and the proceeds were large.
And other merchants began to envy - after all, their trade had died out. They ask the king: let him order that the boy’s owners open their shop no earlier than noon.
The king heeded their petition. The shop of the three merchants began to begin trading only after lunch. Well, well, customers began to wait for lunch, but they didn’t go to others!
What to do here? All the merchants went to the king again and complained: no, they say, I can’t get along with the three merchants, and most of all, with their clerk. Let the king drive them out of the city completely.
The king did not know how to respond to such a request. I thought and thought and finally decided to get rid of the successful merchants in a different way. He called them to him and said:
- Listen... I see there are three of you. You are smart people... Give me some practical advice: where can I find a wife, so that in every way - both in face and in mind - she would be similar to the late queen. I give you three days to think about it. If you don’t answer, head off your shoulders.
The merchants bowed and wandered back to their shop in tears. The boy saw that the owners were crying and asked why they were so sad.
- Oh, the end has come for us, boy! - answered the merchants. “The king demands that we find a wife for him who is exactly like his late wife.”
- So why cry?! - said the boy. “Take me to the king in three days; I won’t live, but I’ll answer his question.”
The merchants heard those speeches and breathed more freely. And when the third day came, they took the boy to the king himself.
- Sovereign! - says the boy. “Let me ask you something first, and then I will answer your question.”
- Well, let's listen to what you have to say! - answered the king.
“I just ask you, blessed king, to judge fairly, according to the laws of the country.” This is what I want to ask: if someone has a garden full of wonderful flowers, and among the flowers there is one, the most wonderful and the most beautiful, then tell me, is it possible for the owner to pick that wonderful flower and bring it into his house to admire it there, reveling in its aroma?
“According to the law, it’s quite possible,” said the king, and the advisers standing nearby confirmed his words.
“But then you, Your Majesty, can choose the best among the most beautiful—your own daughter—and make her your wife.” After all, only she, only your daughter, is like the late queen in everything!
The king heard this and was amazed. But both he and the advisers approved of the reasoning: the boy had turned so much that, they say, according to the laws of the country, everyone is free to dispose of his property as he pleases. They decided, issued a decree and, as it should be, sealed it with seals - they say, the king must take his birth daughter as his wife. And they wrote an order to the bride to get ready for the wedding. The boy was given a big reward and sent home. Therefore, he saved the merchants from a cruel death, and they no longer remembered themselves with joy, they did not know how to please him.
When the princess found out that her father had decided to marry her soon, life did not become pleasant to her. I wanted to lay hands on myself, but I came to my senses and decided to fight with my father. And she figured out how to get rid of the terrible fate. Slowly she went to a skilled craftsman (he made all sorts of decorations for the royal chambers), gave him money and ordered him to quickly make a chest, one that could be lived in for a long time and that could be locked from the inside, and would be light—with the load, it would weigh as much as empty chests usually weigh. The chestmaker took the payment, made a chest and took it to the princess’s mansion. The princess received a chest, put a lot of gold and various jewelry in it, and took with her the sovereign’s large seal. Moreover, she took food and drink into the chest, and before hiding in the chest, she called a faithful servant and ordered to take the chest to the market and sell it to someone for next to nothing.
She locked herself in the chest, and the servant lifted him onto his shoulder and carried him into the city. So he walked, walked, thought, thought - who would he sell to! And he remembered the assistant of the three merchants - he often bought all sorts of goods in their shop. He had long fallen in love with the young clerk because he knew how to sell goods and say a reasonable word, and he was a handsome fellow.
And the princess, when she was about to run away, wrote on that chest: “Whoever buys will repent. And whoever doesn’t buy will repent.”
Many were asking the price of the chest while the servant was walking through the bazaar to the shop where the boy was sitting, and when they saw the princess’s inscription: “Whoever buys, will repent. And whoever does not buy, will repent,” they immediately retreated. So the servant didn’t sell it, he brought it to the shop.
The boy looked at the chest and immediately noticed the inscription. He realized that the chest was special, with some kind of cunning, but whether it was for good or for evil was unknown. He started to bargain. Well, he finally bargained for the chest and took it to his room.
The night is over. And in the morning, when the guy went to the shop, the princess instantly opened the chest, went into the room and tidied it up so that it was nice to look at. The boy returned home late in the evening and was surprised. He wanted to open the chest as quickly as possible - but where could it be! No matter how hard he tried, nothing came of it. But to break it, I regretted the lock, and it was scary, as I remembered the inscription... I took it in my hands and the chest was very light. I thought and thought about what to do, but I couldn’t come up with anything.
And he returned on the second day in the evening and saw that his room was again beautifully decorated. What a miracle! On the third day, he decided to leave the pot of stew on the fire so that it could cook little by little. As soon as he left, the princess opened the chest, prepared various dishes and hid herself again. In the evening the boy returned home, saw the table set for dinner, and realized: no, the chest is not empty, someone is sitting in it!
The next morning he hid and waited - something would happen!
He didn't wait long. The lid lifted and the princess came out. Then a boy appeared in front of her, took her by the hand, and asked who she was, who she was, and why she got into the chest.
The girl said:
- Know that I am the king’s daughter. My father wants to marry me. But I don't want to. So she hid here, and now she has fallen into your hands. You figure out how to hide together with you and get married secretly. Don’t worry about money, there’s a lot of money - after all, I took half of my father’s treasury.
“You did the right thing,” the guy answered her. - Well, let's run away, I agree. Let's do it this way: first I will send you to my mother, where you will live for a short time - until I pay off the merchants and rent out the shop to them.
The princess agreed. And immediately the guy sent her to his mother: he gave her a fellow villager, his faithful friend, to accompany her, and he delivered the chest directly to the groom’s house.
Well, the princess came out of the chest, dressed up in men’s clothes and introduced herself as the old woman’s son. Then she came to an agreement with skilled craftsmen, and they built her a beautiful palace on the seashore.
The princess wanted to see how her wedding dress would suit her face. She got dressed, and the evil boatman accidentally saw her through the window and immediately guessed that it was not a guy, but a girl... He hit himself in the chest with his fist and vowed to steal her as soon as the opportunity presented itself.
A few days later, the princess decided to inform the groom that the palace had already been built and they needed to get married as soon as possible. The groom's mother took the letter from her and went to the sea, to the pier, to look for someone who would go to the city and deliver the letter. Unfortunately, the same boatman turned up. He gave his word to deliver the letter, and he himself opened it, read it, and in return composed another, forged one, as if from mother to son: “Well, you sent me a girl, son! A real slut! Except she doesn’t get mixed up with dogs! Come quickly and deal with the slut, because I can’t stand such a shame, let alone you, dear son!”
That boatman wrote a lot of nasty things to the groom, and all in the name of his mother. And he took that letter with slander to the city. The guy read it, hit himself on the forehead, and then on the knee: “Oh, I’m a wretched thing! What a misfortune! I, an honest guy, should take such a libertine as my wife! Oh, you, the Tsar’s daughter! Damn you to hell, if you’re like that. I need to go home and throw her into the sea - and that won’t last long!”
He settled accounts with the merchants, said goodbye and returned home. He didn’t ask anything from either his mother or the princess, but invited the beauty to take a walk along the seashore in the evening. They approached the edge of the cliff, and the guy pushed the girl straight into the depths of the sea, and rushed home.
And the damned boatman was already right there, secretly watching, sitting in the boat. I admired how the poor girl suffered, how she tried to escape from the raging waves. Finally he grabbed her by the hand, dragged her into his boat, brought her to his lair, and locked her with nine bolts: door after door and each one with a lock. And a few days later, as soon as the princess recovered, he decided to take her as his wife without delay. He has already scheduled a wedding for tomorrow. Yes, fortunately, the princess found a small saw in her prison; I quickly cut out all the locks, all the locks from the doors - and run! The boatman heard it, rushed after him, well, he was just about to catch it, but the princess said: “Damn boatman! I’d rather drown myself!” - and rushed into the sea. And the waves instantly carried her away somewhere far, far away.
It so happened that three guys somehow threw a net and caught a princess instead of fish. When they looked at the girl, they immediately quarreled: everyone wanted to take her as his wife!
While they were arguing, a lot of time passed. The princess woke up - and well, beg them! She said that she was already married, but what the hell! The guys argued even more about whose wife she would be.
And at that time, a knight rode nearby on horseback with a gun and pistols. He heard three guys quarreling over a girl, noticed that the girl was pretty, jumped up, grabbed her hand, lifted her into the saddle and put her behind his back, spurred the horse, and remember her name! The unfortunate royal daughter fell from the frying pan into the fire.
So the hero brought her to the forest, took her off his horse and said: “Be my wife.”
- Fine! - answered the crafty girl. - Do you want to marry me? Agree. But first, buy me men’s clothes, a horse - at least one like yours, give me a weapon, and then take me down the aisle, so be it.
- Okay, let it be your way! - answered the hero. “If you want, put on my dress, and take the weapon and the horse.” Take a walk a little: I want to see how a man's outfit suits you.
And that’s all the princess needs! She got dressed in an instant, mounted her horse, rode a little and turned back; and then she jumped into the saddle again, rode away, waved her hand goodbye - and that was it.
She rode to the nearest town and settled there in an inn. And a few days later she ordered herself a rich Pasha dress, dressed up in it, wrote a firman and put the royal seal on it, and then went to the Pasha and showed him the firman: let the Pasha leave his place and leave. When the pasha saw the seal of the king himself on the firman, he obeyed immediately. And the tsar’s daughter became pasha.
A little later, the princess ordered one painter to paint her in a woman’s dress, and place the portrait at the crossroads, near the cheshma. She stationed a guard at the Cheshma and ordered her to listen carefully to what passers-by would say about the portrait. And if anyone says anything about him, immediately take him to the palace.
It happened that the same boatman was the first to approach. As soon as he saw the portrait, he hit himself in the chest with his fist and exclaimed:
- Oh, isn’t this your portrait, you damned one!
The guard immediately grabbed him and brought him to the pasha. The princess ordered to immediately put chains on the villain and throw him into prison.
A few days later, three fishermen walked past this place. When they saw the girl in the portrait, they immediately recognized her.
- Look, this is the same one that came across our net!
Well, the guard, of course, took them to the pasha’s palace. The princess seated them in one of the rooms and treated them to glory.
A little later, a knight walked past Cheshma, saw the portrait and sighed sadly. Well, they took him to the palace. The princess also put him in a separate room and gave him food and drink.
And finally the princess’s groom passed by the cheshma. I saw the portrait and even cried. The guard grabbed him and sent him to the pasha's palace. He was also seated in a separate room and given a proper treat.
So all the friends and enemies of the young princess gathered in the pasha’s chambers, and she began to interrogate them. First she asked the groom:
- Why did you push me into the sea?
He told her about the boatman’s forged letter and immediately announced his mother’s testimony to everyone: “The girl behaved honestly.” The boatman was interrogated. He has nowhere to go - he confessed everything.
Then the princess turned to everyone who was sitting in front of her:
“Tell me, which of you recognized the girl whose image hung near the chessm?”
Nobody began to lie. Everyone renounced.
- Do you hear? - the princess said to the groom. “I am faithful to you, and because of an evil slander, you threw me, innocent, into the sea.” Well, you see now, the truth is heavier than gold, but it will emerge from the abyss!
She ordered the executioners to tie a stone to the boatman’s neck and throw the criminal into the sea. She gave the rest a lot of money and sent them home. And then the princess put on a white outfit, married her beloved and returned with him to his village. The old mother saw them and was so happy that it was impossible to say.
Well, soon the king died, and the husband of the young princess began to rule the country, because there was no one smarter than him in the whole state.
This is how sometimes a shepherd can become a king!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru