There lived a king who was greedy and cruel.
One day he ordered all the tailors, weavers, and embroiderers to be summoned to the palace and told them:
- Listen, masters! What keeps us warm on cold winter nights? Blanket. What protects us from the heat? Blanket. Let me put it briefly: a man without a blanket is like a horse without a saddle. So: whoever sews a blanket exactly according to our royal height will receive as a reward the hand of our daughter, Princess Rachia Fire-Eyed, and half a kingdom in addition. But whoever brings a blanket that is too long or too short will become our slave. We have said everything, O people, and our royal word is more valuable than gold, stronger than diamond.
Weavers, tailors and embroiderers set to work. Some of them quilted blankets with cotton wool and down, soft and warm, like the wool of a mountain goat; others wove blankets from sparkling silk threads, light as a cloud; still others, stretching velvet on a hoop, embroidered the finest patterns on it in gold and silver. They decorated the blankets with bright tassels, trimmed them with fur and lined them with brocade. But none of them could please the king.
If they brought him a long blanket, he deliberately covered himself with it not lengthwise, but across it, and grumbled:
- Look, your scanty blanket doesn’t even cover my legs!
If the blanket was short, he curled up into a ball and shouted to the whole palace:
- Stupid, you sewed a blanket for a giant. Don't you see, I'm drowning in its folds!
And no one dared to contradict the king.
Thousands of unfortunate people, cursing their fate, became slaves of the greedy king.
Chained, they worked day and night in the depths of mountain caves, not seeing the sun and not knowing rest.
The rumor about the king's atrocities reached one tailor. This tailor was old, poor and lame. He walked leaning on a stick and never thought about Princess Rachia Fire-Eyes. But the old tailor had a good heart. He told his wife:
“I swear on my hat, either I’ll die or I’ll help these unfortunate people out.” Let it be what will be!
From scraps of calico he sewed a blanket exactly according to the king’s height, took a handful of chortan - dry cottage cheese - for the road and went to the palace, leaning on his knotted stick.
In the mountains, where clouds walk and eternal snow sparkles on the peaks, the royal castle rose like a hawk's nest, surrounded by battlements, fortified with loopholes and decorated with images of a stone vishap - a dragon opening its terrible mouth.
The tailor boldly approached the iron-bound gate and asked to report himself to the king.
The royal servants looked at the patchwork quilt and laughed at the tailor:
- What do you hope for, lame madman! The king won’t even look at your rags!
“I hope for a faithful assistant, with whom I have not parted for many years,” the tailor answered, grinning.
The servants did not understand his words, but, remembering the strict order, they brought the tailor into the king’s chambers.
The king looked at the tailor and winced, because the tailor was old, thin and lame. One could not expect much profit from such an employee. But he did not want to break his royal word in front of the servants and said:
- Wow!.. The donkey boasted of becoming a horse, but his ears got in the way? The most skilled craftsmen were unable to sew blankets according to my height, and this ragged beggar hopes to please me? . .
“If there weren’t a donkey, the horse would have to carry the brushwood,” answered the tailor. - Try on my blanket, O king, and let me lose my hat if it doesn’t fit exactly to your measurements.
“Cover me with the rag that this freak dares to call a blanket,” the king ordered.
The king's servants threw a blanket over the king, and it covered him from head to toe.
But the king in an instant turned the blanket across, and everyone saw that the king’s feet in scarlet velvet shoes were sticking out.
“Put a dog collar on this madman and put him on a chain in the middle of the yard?” - said the king. - Let him scare bats at night by barking?..
Hearing the king's words, the servants began to laugh at the poor tailor.
“A smart man laughs last,” said the master and hit the king on the legs with his gnarled stick.
The king howled like a buffalo and hid his feet under the blanket, and the servants froze with their mouths open, amazed at the tailor’s audacity.
— Will you immediately execute the impudent one? - the king shouted.
“Oh, king,” the tailor stopped him, “the blanket was exactly your height, and I heard that your royal word is more valuable than gold, stronger than diamond.”
A cry of anger stuck in the king's throat; he remembered the old saying: He who deceived today will not be believed tomorrow. Trembling with impotent anger, the king replied:
- You're right, tailor. My word is more valuable than gold, stronger than diamond. I will give you half the kingdom and Princess Rachia, but only if you swear to remain silent about the fact that you hit the king.
- O king! - answered the tailor. “I don’t need a kingdom, and I’m not worthy to even look at Rachia Fire-Eyed.” Release the unfortunate slaves from the mountain caves, and I will leave, bowing low to you.
Once caught in a trap, the fox gnaws off its own paw. Together with the tailor, the king had to release all the slaves, and even wish them well on their journey.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru