FAIRY TALES (text) - 76. THE SEVEN RICH MEN AND THE WOMAN THAT BECAME THE RULER

THE SEVEN RICH MEN AND THE WOMAN THAT BECAME THE RULER

They were once in a city seven rich men. But one of them was very rich and the six others were trying to make him poor because of the envy. One day one of them told his friends to steal the ring of his wife, others liked the idea but they didn’t know how to take it. Then they took an old woman to which they told that if she took the ring they would give her all the money she wanted. The old woman asked a cashier and a bald man, then they should call the husband of the mistress at the party and tell her when he’d come. They gave her what she wanted and invited the husband at the feast where the seven of them were gathered and said:

– Will we take a bet? The one whose wife will lose the ring will be the man that will give all his property.

All they agreed with this bet because they were trying to impoverish the rich man. While they were having the supper, the old woman took the bald man inside the cashier, then closed it, and left to go to the rich man’s house. There appears his wife and she welcomed the old woman, invited her to go inside but the old woman said she wanted only to leave the ark there and take it the next morning. And that time when the man was at the feast his wife slept, the bald left the ark, took the ring and went back into the cashier. The next morning, the old woman came and took the ark and left. She handed the ring to the six rich men and after receiving the money for the work she did, she left together with the bald man.

A few days passed, the seven of them gathered again in a feast and one of them pulled the ring and asked whose it was. Once he saw it, the man recognized and accepted that the ring was his wife’s. He was a man that kept the word he said so he was forced to give away all his property. Then he went home and told his wife to wear the most beautiful clothes she had to walk out with him. The woman was so surprised because he had never asked her for such a thing. She got ready and they went to a river’s shore. The man asked the woman to board the boat that will take a sail, and he let his wife go on the boat, then he pushed it without saying a single word and they looked at each-other crying.

He left thinking that the woman was drowned, but at that moment a wind blew and directed the boat to the other side of the shore, where the woman was caught on a branch and escaped.

Nearby without a shepherd who was punching sheep and told him to exchange their clothes together, the shepherd was astonished that she had clothes that shone brightly and didn’t compare with those that he had, but she persuaded him, then she dressed like a man and nobody recognized her. Then she went to the city and found a job. There he saw a very large building and asked a worker whose it was, and he replied: 

Don’t you know whose it is? It is the king’s palace.

The palace was covered with a black curtains because the king of another country didn’t give his daughter’s hand for his son. The woman asked the other worker:

Didn’t he persuade them with war?

The war happened but he could not win – told the worker.

– But it is easy, – said the woman dressed like boy.

The king heard about the words she had said, called her inside the palace and asked her how to act to take the daughter of the other king. And she said:

– I need seven flags of the seven kingdoms, seven umbrellas, seven balls and seven soldiers to do this work.

King said that he would give her not only seven, but seven hundred.

The woman took everything away and went to the other king’s palace, brought the news and said:

– Give your daughter, or you’ll have a fight!

When the king saw the seven flags, he thought that all the kingdoms were joined together against him and gave his daughter of fear.

The other king heard the good news, he took away the black curtains and put the red ones. Then he told the worker to open his mouth and say how much gold he wanted. But the woman said she did not want a single coin, she just wanted to go rule her country. The king granted her immediately.

Once the people of that country knew that they would have a new ruler, they went outside in the street to expect him. Among all the men, the woman saw her husband that was in a very bad mood.

The next day the woman invited all the rich men of the country and asked why the other Bey had not come, and he was her husband. But they said that he was not part of rich people anymore.

The next day she called her husband to have a lunch with him, so when he heard that, he thought that the ruler would cut his head off. But she did not want to do anything bad to him and said: 

– I heard that you were a rich man in this country, what has happened?

The man at the beginning stayed silent and then started to tell the whole story, how he had lost wealth, had drowned his wife in the river and after she heard the whole story, she said:

– How did you kill the woman without even thinking? Without a little bit compassion?

– Do not step on that wound, my lord, – turned the man. – I’ve been crying till today.

Then the woman imprisoned the other six rich men and forced them to tell how they had stolen the ring, and then she took the bald and the old woman that said the same words and she imprisoned those to.

Then the woman called her husband for dinner and had a full table, but the man said:

– It is my destiny to have dinner in this table with you, sir.

The ruler who was his wife, stood on her feet and asked:

– Can you recognize your wife if you see her?

– Even among a thousand others, – said the man. – She had a mole on the right arm and chest.

Then the woman showed him her moles and he knew her instantly so he hugged her. Then she took off her clothes and gave them to her husband to become the ruler of the country. Then she told him for all the prisoners who had admitted that they were guilty, and the next morning she gave orders to burn them one for each day. Starting from the old woman, then the bald man and so on. Then he took all the property they had.