There lived an extraordinary thief. He robbed the rich and then distributed the loot to the poor. He did this unnoticed: at dusk he would creep up to the yards of the poor and throw handfuls of money, and they would later find it and rejoice: “God is helping us,” they said. Even the thief's family did not know that he was doing this.
The younger brother was unhappy that the elder did not take him with him. One day he pestered him: “Take me, take me with you.” The elder answered him:
“You are still small, you cannot cope with such a difficult task.”
One day a thief went to rob the prince, and his younger brother secretly followed him, but the elder noticed him.
“I said that you can’t go with me yet, why are you going?”
“Don’t drive me away,” the younger one began to beg. - I’m also clever. Test me.
“Okay,” the elder agreed. - Here come a woman and a man. They lead a sheep for ataar. Be able to quietly remove a man's clothes. Then I will believe that you are capable of anything.
[Ataara is an ancient custom of coming to visit with a gift to receive help or patronage.]
The younger brother agreed. He overtook the travelers and climbed a tree. When they caught up with him, he took off the woman’s headscarf, so deftly that she didn’t even notice. After some time, the travelers discovered the loss. They tied up their sheep and went to look for a scarf. The younger brother jumped from the tree, cut off the sheep's head, impaled it on a stake and stuck the stake into the swamp so that only one sheep's head stuck out of it. Soon the man and woman returned. Not finding the sheep in place, the man began to look for it around and suddenly saw its head in the swamp. He undressed and climbed into the water. At this time, the younger brother managed to steal his clothes unnoticed. The elder brother looked at all this and said:
- I see you are clever. Well, let's go together.
So they came to the rich and evil prince. Elder brother says:
“There are cunning traps placed everywhere here.” If I fall into one of them, you cut off my head and take it with you so that I will not be identified. Otherwise it will be the end for all of you.
The younger brother of the elder waited until dawn, and then followed in his footsteps and found him dead in a trap. He cut off his head, wrapped it in a headdress and brought it home.
When the prince's servants saw that someone had fallen into the trap, they raised a cry. The prince came running, but when he saw that the thief was headless, he became angry.
“I won’t be a prince if I don’t find out who this thief is,” he said.
The prince ordered the headless body to be dragged through the village through each threshold. He thought that his family would see him and scream and give themselves away. But the younger brother found out about this. He advised his elder brother's wife not to show herself off by crying.
The servants dragged the body through the village. They also approached his house. His wife, remembering the order, restrained herself and did not reveal her grief. But when her husband's body began to be dragged through the mud, she involuntarily screamed. At this time, the younger brother put his nephew's hand into the fire. The servants came running to the cry, and they were shown the burned hand of their nephew. They looked, but could not say anything.
On the second day, the thief’s body was again dragged through the village. Before they left, the thief's wife screamed. “This is where he lived,” said the servants, and they scratched the threshold of this house to notice him. When the prince's servants went to tell the prince how to find the thief's house, the younger brother cut all the thresholds in the village.
The prince and his servants came to inflict reprisals on the thief’s relatives, they looked - all the thresholds in the village were marked. How can we be here? The prince gathered the people and began to interrogate them. The younger brother was also here. He approached a large cauldron in which meat was being cooked for the prince's servants, and quietly pushed one of them into the boiling water. Everyone was alarmed and there was a cry. The younger brother quietly grabbed his headless brother and quietly carried him away to bury him in the proper manner.
Which of the brothers was more courageous?
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru