Long ago, there lived three brothers, and they had a beautiful mare. One day she was stolen from her brothers. They discovered the loss and began to wonder who took the mare.
The elder brother, as the smartest, says:
“I believe the thief was tall.”
The middle senior supported:
- If he was tall, that means he was fair-haired.
And the younger one added:
- If he’s fair-haired, that means he has a huge mustache. Let's go look for the thief!
No sooner said than done. The brothers rushed straight across the field onto the road and ran into a man who looked like two peas in a pod like their thief - tall, with brown hair, and a huge mustache. Only the mare is nowhere to be seen with him. His brothers surrounded him like angry hornets, and well, pestered him:
- Where did our mare go? Choose one of two - either pay the money without leaving the spot, or return the mare!
The poor fellow sees that he was caught, like chickens in a pluck, he began to break free, swearing that he had never seen their mare, and certainly had no intention of stealing. But the brothers are not giving up.
- Give us our mare, that’s all! You stole!
The man stood his ground, then the brothers grabbed him and dragged him to Travnik to the qadi for trial. The qadi asks them:
- What did you come with?
And the brothers unanimously:
- Dear Kadi! This man stole our mare, and we have come to ask you to make him pay us.
The qadi began to ask:
- How do you know that it was he who stole your mare?
The brothers answer:
“Dear effendi, we have come to this point, if you please, with our minds, and now we know for certain that it was he and no one else who stole!”
Hearing this answer, the qadi went into the next room, took the lemon, wrapped it in a rag and put it in a bag. He takes the bag out to the brothers and says:
“If you can guess what’s in this bag, I’ll decide the matter in your favor; If you don’t guess correctly, everyone will receive a hundred blows on their heels.
The elder brother stated:
“I don’t know what you have in your bag, but there’s something round hidden there.”
The middle senior supported:
- If it’s round, it means yellow!
“If it’s yellow, it means there’s a lemon in the bag,” the younger one said finally.
We unwound the rag, and there was indeed a lemon. But the qadi still does not believe the brothers. He left them with him to spend the night. When evening came, the qadi ordered the puppy to be slaughtered and roasted for his brothers for dinner. The time came to sit down at the table, the brothers began to eat, and the qadi said to them:
“If you guess whose meat it is, I’ll make the thief compensate you for your losses; if you don’t guess, everyone will receive a hundred blows on the heels.”
The elder brother stated:
“No matter what this animal’s name was, it was just prowling around the yard all day long.”
“If this animal wandered around the yard all day long, it means she stuck her nose into everything,” added the middle one.
“If she poked her nose into everything, that means it’s a puppy,” the younger one concluded.
The qadi jumped up from the bench and shouted:
- You guessed it! Yours took it!
And he ordered compensation for the brothers' losses.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru