Once upon a time there lived a woman with her son. They had little property: only a dog and a piece of dry land. To raise her son, the mother had to work without straightening her back. The son grew up strong and hard-working. And he knew how to play the flute better than anyone. After working properly in the field, he took out the flute and brought it to his lips. As soon as the sounds of his flute were heard, everything around froze: the stream stopped flowing, the clouds stopped floating across the sky, the birds stopped singing, the monkeys stopped calling to each other. And all the people vied with each other in praising the young musician.
When the wonderful music of the young man was heard by girls from rich houses, who spent all their time in entertainment and idleness, each of them wanted to take him as their husband. But he refused them all. And the wounded daughters of the rich began to plot how they could destroy the flute player.
One day, when he was walking through a field, they waylaid him and pushed him into a deep hole. Not waiting for her son that evening, the young man’s mother cried bitterly and sent a dog to search. The dog began to run everywhere, barking loudly.
But the young man, falling into the pit, was not killed to death, he only lost consciousness. When he woke up, he heard a dog barking and called out to it. When the dog ran up, he told her to bring him a flute from home. The dog ran home with a ringing bark and began to rush onto the roof where the flute was kept. The mother guessed what was going on and, taking off the flute, gave it to the dog. She grabbed the flute in her teeth, ran to the pit and threw it to the owner.
At the first sounds of the flute, the birds stopped singing, the monkeys stopped calling to each other, and everyone gathered to the pit to listen. The monkeys climbed onto a branch hanging over the hole and bent it low. The young man grabbed a branch and climbed out. Returning home, he continued to live happily with his mother.
But the girls, seeing that the young man returned unharmed, again inflamed with hatred towards him and came up with new intrigues. One day they waylaid him while hunting and this time pushed him into a deep ravine.
Finding himself at the bottom, the young man began to make his way along the ravine. He was on the road for three whole years. The roots of plants served him as food, and he quenched his thirst with spring water. And at home, during this time, my mother cried her eyes out...
Finally the day came when the young man reached the end of the ravine and found himself on a large sunlit lawn. Looking around, he saw a field nearby with almost ripened rice. The young man was delighted and headed towards this field. During the three years that he spent wandering along the ravine and eating roots and water, he became so overgrown and thin that he looked more like a monkey than a man.
The field was guarded by two girls from the nearest village. Seeing the young man, they thought it was a monkey and wanted to call people with bows and arrows, but he shouted to them:
- No need to shoot! I am a person who suffered from enemies. Give me food, and I will guard the field so that the monkeys do not spoil the crops.
From then on, he began to guard the field, and the girls brought him rice soup. The first time the older sister came and from afar shouted rudely:
“Here’s your stew, go eat it, you dirty little thing!”
The second time the younger sister came and, coming very close, said:
- Brother, I brought rice, eat it for your health, I cooked it myself.
One day the sisters brought him rice together. The young man asked them for vinegar and a comb to comb his hair. The girls brought everything he wanted. But the older one said venomously: “Look, you’re planning to become handsome!”, and the younger one offered him a mirror.
The stranger washed his face, combed his hair and turned into a handsome, slender young man. The elder sister was the first to fall in love with him and wanted to take him as her husband. She told her father about this. He was not surprised, but only smiled and set a condition:
There are two roads near our house: one is good, the other is overgrown with bushes; both of them need to be corrected. Tomorrow let each of you choose one for yourself and get to work. Whoever he comes to help will marry him.
The next morning the elder sister got up at dawn and went to where there was less work; the youngest got the road overgrown with bushes. The young man came out to help them and went straight to his younger sister. The eldest got angry and complained to her father:
“How stupid he is: he didn’t go where there was less work, but started cutting down bushes!”
The father smiled and answered:
“Okay, tomorrow let everyone prepare food for him; whose food he takes, she will marry him.
The eldest chose better rice and seasoned it with venison. The youngest cooked rice as usual, with sauce and small fish. And this time the young man helped cook and ate with his younger sister, and not with his older sister.
“I didn’t want white rice with meat,” the older sister complained to her father, “but I ate the rice with sauce!”
The father smiled again and said:
“Now let each of you prepare a bed for him; whose bed he chooses, she will marry him.
The elder sister prepared a snow-white bedspread, a colored mat, a fluffy blanket, a mattress and an embroidered pillow. The youngest took a brown bedspread and a simple blanket, and instead of a pillow, a wooden bolster. Having finished her work, she went to the kitchen and began to spin. The young man also came to the kitchen and talked with the girl for a long time, and when it was time to sleep, he chose the simple bed she had prepared.
The next day, their father arranged a wedding for them. The sounds of the flute were heard again, praising pure and selfless love. The young man and his young wife returned to his old mother, and they all began to live in work and contentment.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru