They say that one king had twelve soldiers who, no matter how much they were trained, could not teach anything, they could not do anything. Then the king decided to make fun of these stupid soldiers. Once he sent them to skin a stone that lay in an open field, at the intersection of two roads.
The soldiers took knives and axes with them and went to carry out the royal command.
They walk along the road and meet a twelve-year-old girl.
-Where are you going, girl? - they ask.
“I live in that village, I went out to look for a runaway goat,” the girl answers. “How far are you going?”
“The king ordered us to skin that stone over there that lies at the crossroads,” say the soldiers.
“If I were you, I would go back to the patsha and tell him to slaughter the stone first, and only then send him to skin it.”
The soldiers did so, returned to the patsha and said:
“Tsar-Sovereign, first kill that stone, and only then we will skin it.”
The Patsha was surprised and asked:
- Who taught you to say that?
“I met a twelve-year-old girl on the road, and she taught us.”
“If she’s so smart,” the king said angrily, “let her weave bast shoes for me from this stone.”
The soldiers went to a girl they knew and conveyed to her the king’s order that she weave him bast shoes from stone.
In response, the girl took a bag of sand, gave it to the soldiers and said:
- Take this to the king and let him make a rope for bast shoes from the sand.
The soldiers returned to the king’s palace, placed a bag of sand in front of him and said:
“The girl asked you to make a rope out of this sand.”
“Is she out of her mind?” the king became angry. “Is it possible to make a rope out of sand?” Go and tell her my words.
The soldiers conveyed the king's words to the girl. The girl answered them like this:
- Tell your patsha that if only fools can ask to weave a rope out of sand, then the one who demands to weave bast shoes from stone is no wiser.
Patsha turned green with anger when he heard the girl’s answer conveyed by the eol-dami, and decided to teach her a lesson for such a daring answer.
“If this girl thinks she’s so smart, then let her come to me tomorrow.” She will appear during the day, not at night, not naked or in a dress, not on a horse or on foot, and will not stop on the street or in the yard.
The soldiers conveyed the Patsha’s command to the girl, returned to the palace and the next morning, together with everyone else, began to wait for her appearance.
Only at dusk, which could not be called either day or night, a girl appeared riding a goat. She was dressed in a fishing net. And when she reached the gate of the royal courtyard, she let the goat step with her front legs into the courtyard, while her hind legs remained on the other side of the gate.
Patsha went out onto the porch, marveled at the girl’s intelligence and graciously sent her home.
The Patsha liked the smart girl so much that he decided to marry her and sent soldiers to match her.
Soldiers came to the girl’s house and asked:
- How much do you ask for kalym?
- I don’t need kalyma. Instead, catch and bring twelve wolves and twelve hares,” the girl answers.
The soldiers caught wolves and hares and, together with the groom, came to the girl.
The girl saw wolves and hares and said:
- Now drive them all into one barn.
- No way! - said the king.
- Is it possible for a sixty-year-old man to marry a twelve-year-old girl?
The king could not find an answer to this question and, without so much as a loaf of bread, was forced to return home.
And the twelve soldiers whom he had assigned for fun now made fun of him themselves.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru