Once upon a time there lived a Khan, and he had nine daughters, all of them beautiful. The eight eldest married according to their father’s choice - to obedient and intelligent young men, and the youngest daughter disobeyed her father’s word - she married an unsightly poor man. The khan got angry and ordered his youngest daughter and her husband to live away from the khan’s yurt and in a simple hut.
That's how they lived. Everything would be fine, but then the khan’s white mare’s foals began to disappear. The foals are not simple, half gold, half silver.
Eight older brothers-in-law took turns sitting in ambush to catch the evil thief, but they returned with nothing and did not protect the foals. The Khan's younger son-in-law, that same unprepossessing poor man, came to him and asked to take care of the herd. But the khan only laughed at him:
- Where are you going? I myself went on guard duty, my older sons-in-law went, but what about you, you klutz, to be equal to us! Go away!
The young man disobeyed the khan and went to guard the herd, but did not sleep a wink all night. At dawn, a white mare brought a precious foal, half gold, half silver. Then the fairytale bird Hangard descended from the sky, grabbed the foal and flew away. The guard was not taken aback, he shot an arrow after him, and that arrow with a bird's feather and a golden foal's tail returned to him.
The young man returned home and told his wife to lock the booty in a chest for the time being and not show it to anyone.
And again, every night, foals in the herd disappear, and that’s it. Then the khan called his eight sons-in-law to him and ordered them to travel around the whole world, find the thief and return all the foals home. The younger son-in-law began to ask to join them, but the khan only ridiculed him: where, they say, should you take on such a thing? But the poor man stands his ground:
- I’ll go, that’s all!
The Khan was sitting, there was nothing to do, he ordered to give him an old horse, a real nag.
The young man saddled her and rode home.
“Look, wife,” he says, “can you go far on such a horse?” He barely reached his hut, and this horse couldn’t handle a long journey at all. Apparently, I’ll have to take a good horse away from the Khan’s herd, and so that your father doesn’t get angry, show him the feather of the fairytale bird Hangard and the golden foal’s tail. Let him know that your husband is no match for his other sons-in-law, I didn’t sleep last night and saw a lot.
The young man chose a good horse from the khan's herd and set off in pursuit of the khan's sons-in-law. And his wife fulfilled his order, showing the feather of a fairy-tale bird and the golden foal’s tail to her father. The khan was surprised: the younger son-in-law is smart and dexterous, it turns out.
Meanwhile, young people rode and rode. At the end of the month, the journey was exhausted, and the horses’ hooves were bleeding. They decided to have a good rest, went to the parking lot, but the younger son-in-law didn’t care, he went on.
He drove and drove and saw a white yurt standing at the foot of the mountain. He entered the yurt, and there was an old woman. The young man began to ask her who lived in this yurt. The old woman says: the bird Hangard lives in a yurt, is going to get married, she has already prepared a bride price - a hundred foals, half gold, half silver. One head is missing up to a hundred. And the old woman also said: if Khangard returns home angry, he bursts into the yurt through the smoke hole, and if he is kind, he silently enters through the door.
The young man listened to the old woman and hid not far from the yurt. Then a whistle was heard over the smoke hole in the yurt, then he lowered the bowstring, and the arrow hit the bird right in the heart. And the young man gathered all the foals into a herd and set off on the way back.
He rode and rode, meeting his older sons-in-law, but they were emaciated - only skin and bones remained. The sons-in-law marveled at the poor man’s incredible luck, and they were so overcome with envy that they decided to destroy the young man. They dug a deep hole, pulled a carpet over it, the poor man stepped on the carpet, and fell into the hole.
The sons-in-law quickly began to collect the foals, but the foals ran away. They failed to catch the foals and went home empty-handed.
A girl walked past the pit. She heard a groan, leaned over the pit, and saw that the young man was half dead. The young man asked her to weave a rope from golden and silver foal hair. He used that rope to get out of the hole. He collected the foals, half gold, half silver, and galloped home.
When the Khan saw his foals, he was incredibly happy. Yes, until you see a person in action, you won’t recognize him. The khan ordered the execution of his older sons-in-law, but the brave young man begged them to have mercy. And when the khan died, the poor man became a khan. For sixty years he ruled honestly and justly, for sixty years there was a feast among the people, everyone ate, drank, and had fun.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru