Once upon a time there lived a poor young man. One day he says to his mother:
“I’m going to go, Mom, and travel around the world.” In our village they won’t even give me a dry chestnut. What good will come of me here? I'm going to seek my happiness! Look, joyful days will come for you too, mom.
He said and went on his way. He reached a city and began to wander the streets. He sees an old woman trudge up the mountain, carrying two large buckets of water on a yoke, and she can barely breathe. The young man approached the old woman:
“Give me, grandma, I’ll carry the water, it’s not good for you to carry such a burden.”
He picked up the buckets, carried them to the old woman’s house, climbed the stairs and placed the buckets in the kitchen.
And the kitchen was full of dogs and cats. They began to rub themselves at the feet of their mistress, squealing and purring.
- How can I thank you? - asked the old lady.
“Thank you,” says the young man. - I don’t need anything. I just wanted to serve you.
“Wait for me here, son,” said the old woman, left the kitchen and returned with a ring in her hand. From the looks of it, it wasn't even worth four soldi. The old woman put it on the young man’s finger and said: “This ring has no price.” If you wish for something, twist it around your finger and everything will come true. Just be careful not to lose it, otherwise it will be bad. And to be sure, I will give you a cat and a dog, they will follow you everywhere. They are strong animals, and not today, but tomorrow they will be useful to you.
The young man thanked the old woman and went his way. But to tell the truth, he didn’t believe a single word she said, and therefore he didn’t value the gifts. The old lady is chatting, he decided to himself. And I didn’t even think to turn the ring, at least for a test.
He left the city, and the cat and dog ran after him. The young man loved animals very much and was glad that he had a cat and a dog. He played with them, and they ran and jumped. So they did not notice how they entered the forest. Night came, the young man lay down to rest under a tree, and the cat and dog settled down next to each other. But the young man could not sleep, because he was very hungry. Then he remembered about the ring: Well, I’ll try, trying is not torture. He turned the ring around his finger and said:
- I want to eat and drink!
He had barely uttered these words when a table and three chairs appeared in front of him, and the table was full of all sorts of food and drinks.
The young man sat down, tied a napkin around his neck, sat the cat and dog down, tied napkins for them too, and all three of them started eating food on both cheeks. Now the young man believed in his ring!
They ate, the young man stretched out on the ground and dreamed about the miracles that he could now do. But the hardest thing was to choose: either he wanted to wish for piles of silver and gold, then he liked horses and carriages more, then castles and lands. All new desires came to his mind.
“It won’t take long for him to go crazy,” he finally decided when he couldn’t think of anything else. – How many times have I heard that people lose their heads when a lot of money comes their way. Well, I want to keep my head on my shoulders. That's enough for today, but tomorrow we'll see.
Then he turned on his side and fell fast asleep. The dog lay down at his feet, the cat at his head, and so they guarded their owner all night.
The young man woke up, and the sun was already shining over the green trees, a fresh breeze was blowing, the birds were singing, and his fatigue disappeared. He decided to wish for a fast horse, but it was so good and free in the forest that the young man decided to walk; he decided to want breakfast, but there were such delicious strawberries growing all around that he didn’t want anything else; He wanted to drink, but a stream with such clear water flowed nearby that he decided to drink from a handful.
So he walked through fields and meadows and finally reached a large palace. And there was a beauty sitting by the window. She saw the young man and smiled tenderly at him. The young man looked up... Although he kept the ring, he lost his heart at that very moment.
Now it’s time to ask the ring for help, he thought. He turned the ring and wished:
“Let another palace stand opposite this palace, even more beautiful, and let it have everything your heart desires.”
Before he even had time to blink an eye, the palace grew as if out of the ground, and the young man himself found himself inside, as if he had lived there for a century; the dog was sitting in its kennel, and the cat was washing itself at the window.
The young man approached the window, opened it - and his beauty was sitting opposite the window. They smiled at each other, sighed, and the young man decided that now was the time to ask for her hand. The girl was very happy, and so were the parents, and a few days later they got married.
On the very first evening the young wife asks:
“Tell me, how did your palace suddenly grow out of the ground like a mushroom?”
The young man thought: to say or not to say? And then I decided: After all, she is my wife, and there is nothing to hide from my wife. And he told her about the magic ring. Then they both fell asleep.
And in the middle of the night, the evil woman slowly took the ring off the finger of her sleeping husband, then got up, called the servants and ordered:
– Quickly leave this palace! Let's go back to my parents' house!
At home she turned the ring and said:
“May my husband’s palace rise to the high rocky peak of yonder mountain!”
The palace immediately disappeared, as if it had never existed; The young woman looked at the mountain and saw that he had flown to the very top.
The young man woke up in the morning, but his wife was gone. He opened the window and saw an abyss below him. He rubbed his eyes and looked - deep, deep, at the very bottom, cracks and mounds, and all around - snowy peaks. He wanted to turn the ring, but there was no ring on his hand! I called the servants - no one responded. Only the cat and the dog came running to the call; they stayed in the palace because the young man told his wife about the ring, but didn’t say a word about the cat and dog.
At first the young man did not understand anything, but then he realized that his wife, an insidious traitor, was to blame for everything. But that didn't really comfort him. He began to look to see if he could somehow get down from the mountain, but all the windows and doors were right above the abyss. There was only enough food left in the palace for a few days, and the young man was afraid that he would have to die of starvation.
The cat and the dog saw how sad the young man was, came closer, and the dog said:
“Don’t worry, master, the cat and I will find a path down among the rocks, and if we go down, we’ll get a ring.”
“You are my dear animals,” said the young man, “all my hope is in you.” After all, it is better to throw yourself off a cliff than to die of hunger.
The cat and the dog set off on a difficult journey: they clung to rocks, slid down, jumped from steep to steep, from rock to rock, and eventually descended to the foot of the mountain. There was a river flowing in the valley, it was necessary to cross it. The dog put the cat on its back and swam to the other side.
They arrived at the palace of the treacherous wife late at night, when everyone was fast asleep. Slowly the cat and the dog crept through the hole in the gateway. The cat says to the dog:
- You stay here and guard. And I'll go see what to do next.
Stealthily he made his way up the stairs to the room where the deceiver was sleeping. But the door was locked, and the cat could not enter. While he was wondering what to do, a mouse scurried past. The cat grabbed it and grabbed it. It was a huge fat mouse. She began to ask the cat to have mercy on her.
“Okay,” says the cat. “Just chew a hole in this door so I can come in.”
The mouse immediately got to work. She was already gnawing and gnawing, grinding down all her teeth, but the hole came out small: not like a cat, even a mouse itself couldn’t get through it.
- Do you have any mice? - asks the cat, - What about that? - the mouse answers. “It’s either seven or eight, and one is faster than the other.”
“Bring me one as soon as possible,” says the cat. - Don’t try to deceive me, I’ll catch you and eat you anyway.
The mouse ran away and returned with a little mouse.
“Listen, baby,” the cat tells him. “If you’re smart, save your mother’s life.” Crawl into the bedroom, climb onto the bed and take off the ring that the woman has on her finger.
The mouse crawled through the hole, but returned with nothing:
“She doesn’t have any ring on her finger.” But the cat was not confused:
“So she keeps it in her mouth just to be sure!” Walk quickly and tickle her nose with your tail. She will sneeze and open her mouth. The ring will fall out, grab it and run here quickly.
As the cat said, so it happened. Before he could blink an eye, the mouse returned with a ring. The cat grabbed him and ran down the stairs. He and the dog jumped out of the gateway - and ran away!
But in his heart the dog envied the cat: after all, he got the ring!
They ran to the river. The dog says:
- Give me the ring, otherwise I won’t take it to the other side.
But the cat didn’t want to give up the rings. They began to quarrel, the cat dropped the ring, it fell into the river, and just then a fish swam by and swallowed it. The dog grabbed the fish with his teeth and took possession of the ring. To celebrate, she transported the cat to the other side. But they all continued to quarrel among themselves until they reached the palace and came to the owner.
- Did you bring the ring? - he asks in alarm.
The dog spat out the fish, and the fish spat out the ring.
But then the cat says:
“It wasn’t the dog that got the ring, it was me!” The dog took it from me! And the dog responded:
“If I hadn’t grabbed the fish, the ring would have been lost!” Then the young man stroked both of them and said:
- My dears, don’t quarrel, you are both dear and dear to me, I love both of you.
And for a whole half hour he stroked and caressed the dog with one hand and the cat with the other, until they made peace and became friends as before. Then he stood at the window, turned the ring on his finger and said:
“I want my palace to fall back to its original place, and let my wife and her palace fly to distant lands.”
Both palaces immediately moved away. The youth's palace stood in the middle of a flowering valley, and the deceiver's palace flew up into the clouds - she squealed loudly in fear.
The young man brought his mother to the palace, and she lived happily in her old age. The dog and the cat also remained in the palace, they lived peacefully, although it happened that they quarreled. The young man sometimes used the ring, but not often, because he rightly thought: It is not suitable for a person to easily receive everything he wants.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru