One leader had several wives. And he loved all of them, except one. All the wives laughed at the unloved one and offended her in every possible way. They clean their huts and throw garbage to her. Because of this, the hut of the unloved wife was always dirty and cluttered. And they mocked her even more.
The leader had many wives. But none of them had children. None of them managed to get pregnant.
Year after year passed, and the leader remained childless. Finally, he went to a Muslim and began to ask him for advice: how to help the trouble? The Muslim gave him the drug and explained how to use it. The delighted leader returned to his home and called all his wives. Everyone except the unloved one.
“Here is the medicine,” he said. - It will help you become mothers. Take it, grind it on a millstone, and divide the powder among yourselves.
The women took the medicine, ground it on a millstone, and divided the powder among themselves, and each swallowed her share. Then the leader slept with them all, and they waited until they became pregnant.
And the unloved wife did not receive the drug at all. At night she went to the millstone on which he was ground. She poured water over the millstone, thoroughly washed every crack in the stone, and drank the water. Soon she felt that she was pregnant.
The woman did not tell anyone about this. She hid in her hut and tried not to show herself to others. No one even knew that she had given birth to a child. Some time later, she stealthily brought this child to the chief's hut and left him there.
The leader saw a child in his hut and was happy. He ordered the whole tribe to be convened, distributed gifts to the people to celebrate and said to them:
— One of my wives gave birth to me a son.
- Which one of them? - people asked.
The leader sent to the wives to ask which of them gave birth. The messenger visited all the wives except the unloved one, but did not achieve anything. Each one said that the child was hers.
Then one wise old man advised the leader:
“Let each of your wives prepare food and send it here.” We will place the pots near the child. He will recognize the food his mother has prepared and will be drawn to it.
“Okay,” said the leader.
And he told his wives to prepare food and send it to him.
“That way we’ll know which one is the mother,” he said.
The messenger ran around to all the wives and conveyed these words to them. Only he did not visit his unloved wife. All the women prepared the food, brought the pots to the leader and placed them in front of the child. But the boy began to scream and did not want to eat from any of the pots.
“No,” the people said, “his mother is not among these women.”
“But we have forgotten our unloved wife,” said the wise old man.
“She can’t possibly be the mother of this child,” the leader replied.
And the old man said:
- Let him still cook the food and send a pot. They sent a man to his unloved wife and conveyed to her the leader’s order. She immediately got down to business.
Of course, everything turned out tastier for others, because the leader gave them, without stinting, his best supplies. But the unloved one had to be content with what she had, and her food was meager.
They brought a pot from her and placed it next to the pots of the other wives. Suddenly the boy stopped crying. He reached for his mother's potty, laughed and showed that he was hungry.
“This food was prepared by the child’s mother,” the old man said then.
And the people shouted:
- An unloved wife is the mother of a child!
The leader immediately ordered to call his unloved wife.
- Is this your son? he asked.
“Yes,” she answered, “I gave birth to him from you.”
Then the leader gave her a beautiful dress. And the other wives immediately rushed to remove the rubbish that had been thrown into her hut, and quickly restored order there.
Since then, the leader fell in love with this wife more than anyone else. And the other wives showed her all sorts of honors.
That’s why you can’t say that some woman is worse than others, simply because you don’t love her.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru