One day, the Shah, walking around the dungeon of the palace, where chests with gold and precious stones were kept, found a grain of wheat on the floor the size of a chicken egg. The Shah marveled. How many years have I lived in the world, but I have never seen such wheat. The Shah took the grain, went to his chambers, called his advisers and asked where such wheat grows and why is its grain so large? But no one could answer the Shah's question.
Then he said to the chief vizier:
- O wise vizier, you must find out the secret of this wheat.
The vizier was frightened, fell to his knees in front of the Shah and said:
- Have mercy, O mighty Shah, how will I find out the secret?
“That’s why you’re a vizier,” said the Shah. “I don’t know anything!” I give you forty days. If you don’t find out the secret of wheat, say goodbye to life, I’ll order you to cut off your head.
What was the vizier to do? He bowed to the Shah, went home and began to get ready for the journey. And the next morning, having said goodbye to his wife and children, he mounted his horse and rode off to find out where the miracle grain came from. Where should you go, and who should you tell about your concerns? The vizier walked for a long time. Both on a flat road and in the mountains. Either for months there was no one to exchange a word with, then from morning to night he whiled away the time in sweet conversation. Every day the vizier passed a new village. Finally reached a crossroads. He sees a gray-haired old man sitting on a stone. The vizier greeted him respectfully, got off his horse, bowed from the waist, and started a conversation. Finally he spoke about his grief. The old man listened to him carefully and said:
“Only three sage brothers who live in a distant city can know the secret of this wheat, and no one else.” And you can get to that city along this road.” And the old man pointed to one of the four roads that went in different directions from his stone.
The vizier thanked him, mounted his horse again and rode on. He rode for three days and three nights, and finally saw the city walls and towers. He asked people - it turned out that this was the same city that the old man was talking about. At the bazaar, the vizier was shown how to enter the house of the younger sage brother. He left the horse in the caravanserai and went to his cherished home. I knocked. A woman opened the door for him. And as soon as she stepped out on the threshold, she began to swear:
- Shaitan take you, there is no peace in your house! What do you want, damn it? Is my husband a man? If he were a real man, he would come out and break your head. A good, honest person will never come to us.
The vizier recoiled and wanted to leave, but then he remembered why he had come and said peacefully:
- Listen, sister, how do you know who I am and what I need? Before I had time to open my mouth, you began to curse me and insult me at all costs. Better tell me, is your husband at home?
The woman, grumbling, led the vizier to her husband. In the farthest room, wrapped in blankets and warm shawls, he sat; a gray-haired, hunched old man.
The vizier greeted him and told the wise old man about his grief:
- O good man, I am the chief vizier of the great and mighty Shah. One day, while walking through the basements of the palace, where there were chests of gold and jewelry, the Shah found a grain of wheat the size of an egg. He wanted to know where such a huge grain came from. He gave me forty days. If by then I do not know the secret of the wheat, he will cut off my head. Maybe you know something about this wheat? Tell me. The old man shook his head:
- No, vizier, I don’t know anything about this. But my brother lives in the same city. He is older and wiser than me, maybe he knows something. Go to him.
The vizier thanked the old man and went in search again. He walked around many streets and courtyards until he finally found the house of his second brother. I knocked. And here a woman came to the door and attacked him with such abuse that the vizier regretted his coming. Finally he managed to somehow insert:
- Sister, I need your husband...
- Both of you die - both you and my husband. What do you need it for?
However, she led the vizier into a room where, wrapped in blankets and warm shawls, lay a hunched old man, toothless, with a gray beard reaching to his knees. The vizier greeted him and told him about his misfortune. Barely moving his tongue, the old man answered:
- The secret of wheat is unknown to me. But my older brother lives in this city. He is the wisest of the three of us. Only he can know this secret.
The vizier thanked him and went to look for his elder brother. He walked and thought: “If the younger and middle brother are such decrepit old men that they won’t be able to walk, what’s the elder brother like? He probably doesn’t even have the strength to speak.”
The vizier found his elder brother's house and knocked. The woman opened the door for him again. He was prepared to hear even worse swearing, but the woman asked affably:
- What do you need, good man?
“I have come to see your husband,” answered the vizier.
— My husband went to the market. But he will return soon, come in, wanderer, wait for him.
She led the vizier into the most beautiful room, sat him down, sent her sons to entertain the guest, and she herself went to prepare the treat. The vizier was surprised at this reception, and was just about to question the boys when suddenly a handsome young man with a black mustache entered the room, greeted him and asked:
- How can I serve you, dear guest?
“Thank you, son,” the vizier smiled, “but I have nothing to do with you.” I need the eldest of the three sage brothers. The man laughed:
“I am the person you are looking for.” The vizier did not believe it:
- This can’t be! I saw two younger brothers. They are so old that they cannot move, they can barely speak, and you walk around the city, go to the market and call yourself the oldest? Yes, you are no more than twenty-five years old.
“You don’t believe me...” the owner grinned. “It’s not just you.” Many people in the city who have known us for a long time don't believe us either.
- Explain this riddle to me, wise man.
-Willingly. But first answer my question.
What did you see when you knocked on my little brothers door?
“In both houses, your brothers’ wives opened up to me,” answered the vizier, “and they cursed me outright.” They said all sorts of rude things to me.
“How were you welcomed in my house?” the elder brother asked again.
“Your wife greeted me cordially,” said the vizier, “invited me to come in, sent her sons so that I wouldn’t get bored, and served pilaf and tea.”
“Here’s the solution for you, wise vizier,” the owner laughed. “My younger brothers grew old prematurely because of their wives.” These rude, grumpy, dark women do not give them any life at all. Imagine, if they told you, a stranger, so much, then how they treat their husbands, how they torment their husbands. And I stayed young only thanks to the good nature of my wife. Throughout our long life, she has never offended me by word or deed. Even when there was nothing in the house but bread, she greeted me with a smile. In difficult days, she was my support. That's why I'm getting younger. Now tell me what business you have with me.
And the vizier told the sage that the Shah had found a grain of wheat the size of an egg, which surprised him very much, and then he sent the vizier to look for a man who could solve the mystery of the wheat.
“And he gave me only forty days to do this,” he finished sadly. “If I don’t find out the secret, my head is off my shoulders.” People told me that only you can know this secret. If you know, reveal it to me.
“The people said it right,” answered the sage. “Listen, vizier... In our village there lived a poor man among the poor.” He had nothing - no money, no livestock. I just inherited a tiny piece of land from my father. Year after year she gave birth to less and less wheat. And finally the man became so poor that he could no longer feed his family. And then he sold his land to another peasant. And he began to plow and suddenly felt that his plow had bumped into something hard. I dug deeper and found seven clay jugs of gold. But I must tell you, vizier, that he was a kind and honest man. He immediately buried the jugs and went straight to the poor man who sold him this land. "Brother," he said, "when I was plowing the land that you sold me, I found seven clay jars of gold. Go take your wealth." But he replied: “This gold is not mine, but yours. If it were mine, I would have found it when I plowed the land. But now the land is yours, and the gold that is buried in it is yours.” But the man who bought the land stood his ground: “No, brother, the land was yours at first, therefore the gold belongs to you. Go take it.”
So they argued for a long time, no one agreed to take the gold.
Then we went to the headman and asked for advice. The headman asked them several questions and found out that one of them had a son, the other a daughter. And he gave this advice: “You give your daughter for his son, and all the gold will go to the children.”
The peasants thanked the headman and did as he advised. And since their hearts were noble and pure, each grain of the sown wheat grew as big as an egg. Your Shah found one of them.
The vizier marveled at the outlandish story, thanked the sage for helping him out in difficult times, and went back. Whether it was a long or short walk, he finally arrived in his city and told the Shah everything he had found out about wheat. The Shah was very pleased and generously rewarded his vizier.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru