Once upon a time there lived a king, and he had three sons. All three are single.
The king was sick and no one could cure him.
One day the eldest son went hunting and saw: near a small house a woman was chasing a girl, scolding her for spinning poorly.
“But we also need a spinner,” thinks the prince. He approached the woman and asked:
- Give me the girl.
Baba thinks: “Who knows, why does he need her! But this is the prince’s son! She will be happy with him." And says:
- What do you need this snotty girl for? Take the oldest one'
- No, no, give me this one, the youngest one.
I brought her home. The old king began to raise her together with his sons. They have grown up. The king sees that all three of them fell in love with her, this is no good. He says to his sons:
- Dear children, I can’t judge you. Go, all three of you, to wander around the world; whoever of you brings the most wonderful, rare thing will get Betushka.
Here they went in different directions. One bought a magic mirror. You will see whatever you want in it. The second is a scooter cart that travels by itself, without horses, and the third is three apples. If the patient eats it, he will be cured of any ailment.
So they all gathered in one city and stayed there overnight. Everyone is curious about what the others are talking about.
- What do you have?
- Three apples.
- Well! And I have a scooter-cart that goes without horses.
- And I have a mirror. Whatever I want, I will see in it.
The older brothers rejoiced that they had obtained more wonderful things than the younger one.
“What do they think is going on at our house now?” Pepik, or whatever his name was, looked into his mirror and exclaimed:
- Oh, fathers! Trouble! Father is feeling bad, and Betushka is also sick.
We ran to the scooter-cart, all three got into it and instantly found themselves at home. The younger one immediately handed the king his three apples. He ate them and gave Betushka a bite from each one. And immediately they both recovered.
- What did you bring?
The eldest sons showed their purchases. The king shook his head:
- That's it! Here I myself won’t figure out how to judge you.
The judges came and scratched their heads, but were unable to judge the sons. Finally, a simple Czech man trudged along. He came to them as he was, in a village cap and a simple shirt, and reported to the king that he was undertaking to resolve the dispute.
- What do you have?
- Cart.
- And you?
— Mirror; If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have made it home on time.
- What do you have?
- I have nothing. Now there's nothing left. I had three apples, but I gave them away.
- Hmm, yes, yes. So you still have a cart, you have a mirror, but this one has nothing... It turns out that he should rightfully get Betushka.
They got married, and both were happy.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru