They say that there once lived a king who revered women beyond all measure. One day this king was walking through the forest and saw how two poor people, a husband and a wife, were chopping wood. The king wanted to know more about their life, so he ordered to invite them to the palace. When the couple appeared before the king, the king began questioning:
- Well, my loyal subjects, what do you do for a living?
“We, Your Majesty,” the poor man answered him, “we cut wood and sell it.” This is how we earn our living.
– Is the money you earn enough for food?
- Enough, Your Majesty.
– Perhaps you even manage to save a little?
- It works, Your Majesty. – And how do you spend them?
- Yes, very simple, Your Majesty. I divide all the money I save into four equal parts. I spend one part to ensure my future life, the second I pay creditors, the third I throw away, and the last I give to the enemy.
When the king asked how to understand this, the poor man, making a respectful bow, replied that he could only explain it to the king face to face. The king ordered the courtiers to leave immediately, and when they were alone, the poor man said:
- Your Majesty, your loyal subject spends the first part on religious rituals. After all, this is concern for the future life.
The second part goes to pay off debts: I help my parents, who fed and raised me.
And since I have a weakness for alcohol, I, one might say, throw the third part to the wind.
As for the last, fourth part, I give it to my wife.
The king was very pleased with the poor man's answers. He ordered the poor man not to tell anyone about their conversation, otherwise, they say, he would not escape the death penalty. But the fact is that the king set out to find out how smart and insightful his loyal subjects are. So he ordered to write down the questions on a slate board and announce everywhere that whoever answered these questions correctly would be given a high rank. Days passed by days, a whole month had already passed, but there was still no person who could cope with this task.
One day the poor man’s wife found out about this and thought: “After all, these are the very questions that my husband answered to the king. Only he knows the correct answers. I learn them from my husband, and then the king grants me a high rank. I will live carefree and in abundance, and if royal wrath falls on my husband, it won’t matter either.”
The wife decided so and began to ask her husband to share his secret with her. The husband resisted for a long time, mindful of the king’s threat. However, the heart is not a stone, in the end he succumbed to his wife’s persuasion and revealed his secret to her.
The next morning, the poor man's wife came to the palace and announced that she could answer all the king's questions. And, as promised, the king granted her a high rank. And immediately after her departure, the king suddenly remembered where and when he had met this woman, and secret suspicion crept into his soul. Then he ordered that he catch up with the poor man’s wife and immediately take her to the palace. Coming to the king, the poor man’s wife repented of everything, but at the same time said reproachfully:
- Your Majesty! Apparently, you favor women only in words. If this were not the case, you would not have asked the fourth question. After all, only one answer is possible: the enemy is a woman.
The king had nowhere to go. He left a high rank for the poor man’s wife, but from this whole story he learned an instructive lesson - he realized that the answer to the fourth question was also correct: after all, the poor man’s wife knew what price her husband would have to pay for her high rank. And, however, this did not stop her.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru