There lived in one village a very cunning man. He was not taught anything, and yet he happened to deceive smart and learned people. And this man swore never to serve anyone. He began to live on what he managed to get by his cunning.
One day he sat down to eat and suddenly saw that the entire edge of the plate was covered with flies. He grabbed a branch and began slapping the flies, and when he got tired, he told his wife to count the flies he had killed. My wife counted them and there were thirty of them.
“From this day forward, call me Tismar Khan,” he told his wife.
[Tismar - who killed thirty. ]
The wife agreed and began calling her husband Tismar Khap, followed by all the neighbors, and soon no one called him by anything other than that name.
There was a famine in their village. Tismar Khan went with his wife to a neighboring village; there they found refuge for themselves.
One day the king called Tismar Khan and said:
- What can you do?
“I can do everything that no one else can do.”
“A lion comes to our village every night,” said the king. “So kill him today and show him to us tomorrow.” If you kill a lion, you will receive a hundred rupees reward, but if you fail, I will hang you!
Tismar Khan went home, but his heart ached. “I’ve never even seen a lion,” he thinks, “and I need to kill him!” What to do? After all, he can eat me. But if I don’t kill him, the king will hang me.” He was so upset that he even cried. His wife began to console him.
- What good are tears? - she said. “We have to run away from here tonight.”
Tismar Khan liked this advice, and he began to get ready for the journey. The day passed, night came. Everyone fell asleep. And the wife says to Tismar Khan:
- We have a lot of things. Go and steal the potter's donkey. We will load our luggage onto it and leave.
Tismar Khan came out of the house, and there was a lion standing in the yard. Tismar Khan had never seen a lion in his life, and besides, the night was so dark! He mistook the lion for a donkey, grabbed it by the ear and tied it to a tree that grew in the yard. Then he ordered his wife to load the donkey. The wife took out the things, and when she lit the lamp, she saw that it was not a donkey at all, but a lion. Shouting: “Lion! Lion!" – she ran into the house. Tismar Khan lost his tongue from fright. They locked the doors and waited in fear for the morning.
In the morning, neighbors saw a lion tied in front of Tismar Khan's house. They ran to the king and said that at night Tismar Khan caught a lion and tied it near his house. The king went there, saw a lion, was very surprised and began to call Tismar Khan. But he doesn't come out.
“Let me sleep,” he says. “I’m very tired, I’ve been running after the lion all night.” Put the money under my door, kill the lion and go in peace.
The king called him again, but Tismar Khan did not come out, he only said that if the lion was not killed, he would lead him straight to the king’s palace, and then he would not leave anyone alive.
Frightened, the king slipped a hundred rupees under the door and ordered his guards to kill the lion. And when the king left, Tismar Khan opened the door and began to loudly boast to the people of his strength and dexterity.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru