Wise old people say that a person is smart regardless of whether he is rich or poor. Nature endows people with intelligence at its own discretion.
It happens that the stupidity of a rich man is covered up by wealth and pomp, while the wisdom of another poor man perishes in need. This is how it is told in the story of the shepherd and the prince.
There once lived a king, and he had a son. From childhood, the prince became close friends with a shepherd.
Early in the morning the shepherd gathered his sheep, took his staff in his hands and, whistling, drove the flock to pasture. And the prince, armed with a bow, mounted his horse and set off after the shepherd and his flock. Having caught up with his friend, the prince dismounted from his horse and wandered with the shepherd through the pastures. So they spent whole days together, and returned home in the evening.
The rumor about the prince's friendship with the poor shepherd spread throughout the kingdom. He also reached those close to the king - the palace nobility, who saw in this friendship shame and dishonor for the royal family.
The palace nobility gathered and decided to inform the king about everything. The courtiers came to the king and said:
“The Tsarevich has completely gotten out of hand, he spends whole days with a simple shepherd, and everyone knows about it. How will he rule the country after you? And how can we really agree that our king should be someone who grew up in the society of a shepherd? A shepherd can teach a prince to herd sheep, but cannot teach him to rule over people.
The king had only one son, therefore, after listening to his entourage, he was deeply saddened. “How to break off the friendship between the prince and the shepherd,” thought the king, “so that the son does not guess about it?”
And the king secretly announced that whoever destroys the friendship of the prince with the shepherd will be given a large reward from the treasury in gold and silver.
One old woman heard about the royal decree. She came to the king and said that she would take on this matter. The old woman built a small hut near the road along which the prince and the shepherd usually passed, climbed into it and began to wait. The next morning a flock of sheep appeared, followed by two friends - a prince and a shepherd.
“Come here, my son, I want to tell you something!” the old woman shouted to the shepherd.
The prince followed the flock further, and the shepherd hurried to the old woman. She began to complain to him about her illnesses, poverty and ordeal. No matter how hard the shepherd tried to end the conversation with her as quickly as possible, nothing worked.
Seeing that the prince and his flock had gone quite far, the old woman said to the shepherd:
“I wanted to tell you something else, son, but I forgot.” Okay, go; Maybe I'll remember later.
The shepherd ran to catch up with his flock. He caught up, and the prince asked what he and the old woman were talking about.
“Yes, about nothing,” the shepherd replies. “I complained about my illnesses and poverty, but I wasted my time.”
They spent the whole day together, as usual, and returned home in the evening. The next day, the old woman again detained the shepherd for a long time, but did not say anything to him. The shepherd caught up with the prince, and he asked again:
- What did the old woman tell you?
“Nothing special, just wasted my time.” The prince suspected something was wrong, got angry and said:
- O ungrateful shepherd! I renounced the company of rich and noble people and preferred friendship with you, because I trusted you. But you are hiding something from me. For two days now you have been going to the old witch and talking to her about something, and when I ask you, you try to get out of it.
The shepherd began to assure the prince that he had told the true truth and had not hidden anything. But he didn’t believe it. He became angry, returned home, ordered the guards to seize the shepherd, tear out his eyes and bring them to the palace, and throw the shepherd himself into a deep hole.
Four guards went to carry out the order of the prince, but when they saw how wise, simple and honest the shepherd was, they felt sorry for him. And they decided to catch the deer, tear out its eyes and bring them to the prince, and let the shepherd go.
Time passes, but the memory of a person’s actions remains.
[Baluchi proverb.]
One day the prince went for a walk to the seashore. He looks - a sailboat is sailing along the shore, and in it is a girl of fabulous beauty. The beauty looked at the prince, and their gazes met. The girl took a red handkerchief out of her pocket, waved it to the prince, then touched her teeth with her finger, pointed at something else and disappeared along with the boat.
The beauty of the unknown girl excited the prince. But no matter how hard he tried to unravel her strange signs, he could not.
The prince returned to the palace. The next morning he called the vizier and the vakil to him, told them that he had seen a strange dream, and demanded to explain what it meant. The vizier and the vakil began to interpret the prince’s dream, each in his own way, but the prince did not like their explanations.
He remembered his friend - the wise shepherd - and ordered the guards to immediately take him to the palace. No matter how the guards tried to explain to the prince that, on his orders, they tore out the shepherd’s eyes and threw him into a deep hole, the prince did not want to hear about anything. In the end, they had to leave the palace and go in search of the shepherd.
The guards searched for a long time for the shepherd and finally brought him to the prince. Seeing his old friend, the prince was incredibly happy, hugged him and led him to his chambers. There he told him about a meeting with an unknown girl and about the signs that she made to him. The shepherd easily solved the riddle.
“My lord, a red handkerchief and the touch of a finger to the teeth mean that the girl lives where supari and musuoka grow.” By this she let you know that you should go to those parts if you really love her and want to see her.
[Supari is betel nut.
Musuoka is a type of tree.]
The prince ordered that two fast horses be prepared for him and two khurjins filled with gold, silver and precious stones. The prince sat on one horse, the shepherd on another, and they rode to where the girl lived.
After long wanderings, having endured many hardships and torments along the way, they finally reached an unfamiliar city. On the outskirts of the city, near the cemetery, they chose a large tree and stopped under it.
The shepherd advised the prince that when visiting the city, he should pass by the royal palace every day. Then the girl they are looking for can notice him and recognize him. The prince listened to the shepherd, and then one day the girl really noticed him. She soon found out where the prince and his friend were staying, and sent a maid to tell them that she considered them her guests and would send them food.
At sunset, when the shepherd went somewhere, the maids came and brought a large tray with seven dishes of pilaf. Six dishes featured neat towers of rice. And on the seventh dish the tower was half destroyed.
The prince thought and thought about what all this meant, but he couldn’t come up with anything. He decided to wait for his friend. Soon the shepherd returned, looked at the dishes and said:
— Not far from the city there is an old fortress with seven towers. Six towers are in good condition, but the seventh is half destroyed. So the princess makes an appointment for you in this ruined tower tonight.
The time for the first sleep came, and the shepherd led the prince to the ruined tower of the old fortress. I left him there and went back. The prince waited and waited for the girl, but she still didn’t come. Drowsiness overcame him and he fell asleep. The girl came, and the prince was fast asleep. She got angry, took four majolas out of her pocket, put them in the prince’s pocket and left. And he slept until the morning. I woke up, saw that it was already late and went home.
[Among the Balochi, the night is divided into avli wab (first sleep) and guddi wab (second sleep).
Majol - dice.]
The shepherd asked him for news, and the prince got angry and said:
- So no one came. In vain you made me wait all night, where is your wisdom?
The shepherd did not believe the prince. I began to feel his pockets and found four majolas.
“You see,” said the shepherd, “you fell asleep, and the princess came, saw that you were sleeping, and put four majolas in your pocket.” By this she wanted to say that you are still a child and should play majola, and not seek her love.
The prince blushed with shame, but remained silent.
The next night the shepherd again led his friend to the ruined tower. And again, without waiting for the girl, the prince fell asleep. She came, saw him sleeping, put four gori in his pocket and left. The prince slept until the morning and returned home again with nothing.
[Gori is a glass ball.]
The shepherd asked him for news, but the prince did not answer. The shepherd felt his pockets and took out four gori. Like last time, this meant that the prince was still a child and he should play with other children and not go on dates with girls.
The shepherd got angry with the prince and came up with this.
He brought chicken and asked the prince to help him cut the meat into pieces. The prince began to cut the chicken on one side, and the shepherd on the other. And as if by chance, the shepherd cut the prince’s finger with his sharp knife. He sprinkled salt on the wound and bandaged it tightly, and explained to the prince that he did this so that the wound would not fester and would heal faster. In fact, the wise shepherd wanted the prince not to fall asleep at night because of the pain in his hand.
The third night came, and the shepherd again led the prince to the ruined tower. He led him inside and hid nearby.
The prince began to wait for his beloved. His finger hurt badly, and he could not sleep. Deep at night, the prince suddenly heard someone’s quiet steps, and then the gentle chime of women’s jewelry.
[In India and Pakistan, many women wear bracelets decorated with small bells or coins on their wrists and ankles; when moving they make a melodious ringing.]
The princess entered and lit a small lamp that she had brought with her. The prince looked at the girl and was amazed at her extraordinary beauty. He forgot about everything in the world, even that his finger hurt.
And the princess sat down next to him, saw the sore finger, untied the wound and smeared it with some kind of ointment. The pain immediately subsided.
The servants noticed that the princess was going to the old fortress for two nights in a row, and reported this to the king. At the end of the third day, as soon as the princess entered the tower, the king ordered his soldiers to surround the fortress.
The shepherd, hiding near the tower, saw the soldiers, understood what was happening, and began to think about what to do to save the prince and his beloved. He dressed himself in women's clothing, which he had in his bag, and began to look like a woman. He ran to the market, bought sweets, put them on a tray and went to the tower, taking with him his men's clothes. So he approached the tower: a tray of sweets in one hand, a lit candle in the other, and a bundle of clothes under his arm.
The guards stopped the disguised shepherd. And he says to them in a woman’s voice:
- My dear sons, I am a childless woman. Every night I bring sweets to the saint’s grave behind this tower and pray that God will send me a child. Today I will pray until dawn.
The guards took pity on the woman, took sweets from the tray, began to eat them, and they let her through to the saint’s grave. But the cunning shepherd added a sleeping potion to the sweets, so soon all the guards fell asleep.
The shepherd made his way into the tower, put on men's clothes, gave women's clothes to the princess, told her to change clothes and slowly go home. So she did.
And the shepherd and the prince undressed, tied their langs, smeared their faces and bodies with ash, tousled their hair and began to look like real malangs.
[Lang—loincloth.
Malang is a hermit; holy fool.]
They hid their clothes and left the tower. Meanwhile, the guards woke up and detained them.
In the morning, the guards began to search the tower, but they did not find the princesses in it and reported to the king that no one except two malangs had been found in the fortress. The king was angry with the servants who needlessly discredited his daughter, called them and began to interrogate them, but the servants stubbornly proved that they were right.
“Perhaps the princess managed to get out of the tower unnoticed at night,” they suggested.
And then the king decided to subject his daughter to the test of fire.
A large fire was lit, and when it burned down, the princess was ordered to walk over the hot coals to prove her innocence.
All the surrounding people came to the place of testing. The mullahs began to read excerpts from the Koran, the learned men opened their thick books and proclaimed:
[Mullah is a minister of religious worship among Muslims.]
- If the princess is pure and immaculate, she will remain safe and sound after passing through the fire. If she deceived me, she will burn and turn into coal.
When the princess was almost ready to step barefoot on the hot coals, a mad malang who was standing nearby ran up to her, hugged her and began to lament. It was the prince who pretended to be a mad malang.
- Crazy, crazy! - the crowd shouted and rushed to take the princess away from him.
Finally the princess was released, and the malang fell to the ground unconscious. But after this, the princess refused the test, citing the fact that a man had touched her.
“If the fire burns me,” she said, “people may think that I am guilty.”
The mullahs consulted with the learned men and began to conjure the fire not to punish the princess for the fact that the mad malang touched her, but to punish her only if any other man touched her.
And since no one except the prince touched the princess, she perked up and stopped being afraid of fire. She stepped on hot coals, walked over them and remained unharmed. Trumpets sounded and drums beat. The princess was declared immaculate. The king and the people rejoiced, and the servants who slandered the princess were thrown into cauldrons of boiling oil.
The wise shepherd who saved the princess was also happy. But now he had a desire to quickly marry his friend to the princess and return home together.
The shepherd and the prince left for another city and stayed there for some time. Soon the shepherd bought a rich woman's robe and asked the prince to wear it. And the prince began to look like a young beautiful woman. They returned to the region where the princess lived and came to the palace. The king began to ask them for news.
“Vladyka, I am a merchant,” said the shepherd, “and this is my sister, she is married to a man from another city.” After the wedding, her husband took her away from her home, and she did not see her loved ones for a long time. Now I'm taking her home. But I need to go away for three or four days on business, let her stay in your palace until I return. The king is the father of his subjects, I have nowhere else to leave her.
The king gave his consent, the shepherd left the prince in the palace and left. The prince went to the women's quarters, and the princess immediately recognized him and took him to her chambers, where the servants were not allowed to enter.
At night, the prince took off his women's dress, changed into men's clothes and secretly left the palace to visit the shepherd. And the princess sent servants to the king in the morning with the news that their guest had disappeared. A search began, but the fugitive was never found.
Then the king decided to dig a grave and bury a log in it. The next day, the shepherd arrived at the palace along with the prince and introduced him as his own brother. The king told them in deep sadness that their sister had died. The brothers began to sunbathe and asked the king to show them their sister’s grave. When they were brought to the cemetery, the shepherd explained that according to the custom of their country, relatives do not leave the dead in foreign lands, but take them with them. They dug up the grave and found a log there.
The brothers got angry and went to the king:
“We believed in your justice, but you deceived us.” If you treat foreigners this way, then how are you with your subjects? Give us back your sister, otherwise we will tell our king about everything and he will take her from you by force.
Fearing shame, the king gave them his own daughter. But the shepherd demanded his second daughter. The prince married his older sister, and the shepherd married his younger sister.
Soon the friends took their wives and left for their native lands. The prince's father grew old, and the prince inherited his throne. The new king made the shepherd his vizier, and everyone lived happily.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru