Once upon a time there lived a rich khan; he had three sons. In the Khan's aul there is an orphan, a girl of amazing beauty. One day, the khan's eldest son, returning from a hunt, saw a beauty and fell madly in love with her: he began to court her, and then proposed to her. The girl agreed. The groom visited her every day and brought her various gifts.
A month later, the groom had to go to a remote village for a very long time on some business. His business kept him in a foreign land longer than he expected. In the absence of the older brother, the middle brother saw the girl; he fell in love with her in the same way and proposed to her. The girl agreed, but kept silent about the fact that she had given her word to her older brother. After some time, on the orders of his father, he went to another village, to his uncle, his uncle detained him for more than two months. Meanwhile, the younger brother fell in love with the same girl and, not knowing anything about the attitude of the older brothers towards her, proposed marriage to her. And he also received her consent.
The middle brother returned, followed by the eldest. When they told their father about their trip, the eldest announced to him and his brothers who were there that he was going to get married.
-Who is your bride? - asks the father.
– My bride is an orphan who lives in our village.
- She is my bride! - says the middle one.
- No, mine! - said the younger one.
A dispute arose between them, since none of them wanted to give up the bride to the other. I had to turn to the qadi; They brought to him a poor girl, the culprit of the feud between the brothers. The judge asked her in a stern voice about the reason for such strange behavior.
“I’m a poor girl,” she answered timidly, “and all three of them are from a rich and noble khan’s family.” Each of them proposed to me at different times; What was I supposed to do? To refuse would have meant offending the young man in love! Moreover, the first two did not return for a long time, but you yourself know what the position of a helpless and lonely orphan is!
“Yes, it was difficult for you to do otherwise,” said the old judge, “but still you must make a choice between them.”
“If I choose one of them,” said the girl, “then the others will say: why are we worse than him!”
- You can’t offend everyone!
“And in order not to offend anyone, let all three of them, if they love me, go travel: whoever of them gets me something that no one has seen or heard of, I will marry him!”
Everyone praised the girl for her resourcefulness. Then the brothers took an oath from her that she would not marry before their return, and set off on their journey.
They rode, whether it was long or short: soon the tale is told, but not soon the deed is done; Finally, all three of them, having traveled the length and breadth of not only neighboring but also distant states, met at the glorious bazaar of the city of Babylon. There they hoped to get something that their bride would like. And indeed, each of them managed to make a rare purchase: the eldest bought a magic mirror, into which, if you look, you can see what is happening in the world; the middle one bought a magic carpet, on which if you sit, you will instantly find yourself wherever you want; the youngest finally bought a magic cubegan, from which if you pour water on the deceased before lowering him into the grave, he will come to life.
The brothers returned from the market and began vying with one another to praise their purchase.
“Let’s look in my mirror,” says the older brother, “and we’ll see what our bride is doing!”
They rushed to the mirror and, to their horror, saw that the girl they loved, for whom they had traveled to distant lands, was lying dead on the table.
“Let’s sit on the carpet,” says the middle one.
All three boarded the magic carpet and at that very moment found themselves in their native village near the body of their bride. Then the younger one splashed water on her from a miracle cupgan, and, to everyone’s surprise, the girl stood up, as if she had woken up after a long sleep. And then an argument broke out between the brothers again.
“The girl belongs to me,” says the elder, “because if it weren’t for the mirror, we wouldn’t know about her death!”
“My girl,” said the middle one, “if it weren’t for my carpet, we wouldn’t be able to get here on time!”
“Okay,” says the younger one, “one of you found out that she died, and the other brought us here: what would you have done if not for my kubgan, which brought her back to life?”
Since their dispute could lead nowhere, they again turned to the qadi so that he could judge them. Kadiy advised them to go again to Babylon to seek trial and reprisals from the caliph there. The brothers set off, leaving a mirror, a carpet and a cubegan in the village. While they were having a trial in Babylon, the girl fell ill again and died, and since there was no one to bring her back to life, she was buried.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru