Andrew the wisest of all
Once upon a time, there lived an inquisitive lad named Andrei. He wanted to know everything. Wherever he looked, whatever he saw, he would ask people about it, trying to uncover every mystery. Clouds floated across the sky... Where did they come from? And where were they going? A river roared beyond the village... Where did it flow? A forest grew... Who planted it? Why do birds have wings and fly freely everywhere, while humans have no wings?People answered him, answered him, but in the end, they realized they didn’t know what to say either.
"Andrei, you want to be wiser than everyone else," people began to laugh at him. "But is it possible to know everything?"
But Andrei didn’t believe it was impossible to know everything.
"I’ll go," he said, "to the sun itself. It shines everywhere, sees everything, knows everything. It will tell me what I don’t know."
He left his little hut and set off to find the place where the sun rests at night.
He walked and walked, and suddenly he saw a man sitting on a stone by the road, asking everyone, "How long must I sit here?"
And Andrei couldn’t answer him either.
He walked on. He saw a man propping up a fence with his shoulders.
"What are you doing, uncle?" Andrei asked. "Why are you propping up this old fence?"
"I don’t know... Maybe you do?"
"If I knew, I wouldn’t be searching for someone who knows everything," Andrei said and continued on his way.
He walked a little further and saw a man rummaging through garbage.
"Why are you digging through this garbage, uncle?"
"I don’t know."
"Well, I don’t know either," Andrei said and moved on.
Whether he walked a long time or a short time, he eventually entered a dense forest. He walked through the forest all day, and by evening he came out into a clearing. And there, his eyes were suddenly dazzled: such a bright light shone from the clearing. He squinted and saw nearby the sun’s palace ablaze with fire. As soon as he entered the palace, the brightness blinded him. But as his eyes adjusted, he saw an old woman, the sun’s mother, sitting in a chair.
"Why have you come here, lad?" she asked. Andrei bowed to her and said:
"I’ve come to the sun to learn about this and that."
"And what is this 'this and that'?"
"About everything I don’t know myself."
"And what don’t you know?"
Andrei began to tell her, and the old woman listened and listened, then began to yawn.
"Alright," she said, "wait a little. My son will return soon to rest for the night. In the meantime, I’ll take a nap—I’m very tired from the long day."
Andrei left the palace. He lit a fire and began to roast some bacon on a spit—he was hungry after the long journey!
He ate the bacon with bread and then felt thirsty. He went to the river and bent down to drink. Suddenly, he saw a maiden rising from the riverbed, so beautiful that he couldn’t take his eyes off her. And she, too, couldn’t stop looking at him.
"Don’t drink from the river," she said, "or the sun will burn you!"
"But I’m very thirsty."
"Follow me."
She led him to an old oak tree, where a spring of cold, clear water gushed from beneath it.
Andrei bent down and drank his fill of the spring water. Just then, the sun began to descend from the sky to its palace. He needed to go to it, but he couldn’t bring himself to part with the beautiful maiden.
"Don’t tell the sun you saw me here," the maiden said, then rose into the sky and shone like a bright star.
Andrei went into the palace. The sun was so hot that the walls of the palace crackled. But Andrei didn’t feel a thing—he had drunk the spring water, so the sun couldn’t burn him. He just pulled his hat down over his forehead to protect his eyes.
He told the sun why he had come. The sun said:
"I don’t have time to teach you. But I’ll make it so that you learn everything yourself."
The sun gathered all its rays into one beam and flashed it into Andrei’s head. Instantly, Andrei felt his mind grow clearer and brighter, though his head burned fiercely, and his heart turned cold as ice...
He left the palace. He felt uneasy with his cold heart. He remembered the maiden. He longed to see her again so much that he felt weak all over. He called out to her. The bright star fell from the sky and turned into the beautiful maiden before him. As soon as Andrei looked at her, he felt his heart warm again, just as it had been before.
He took the maiden’s hand and led her back to his homeland. He was so happy now that he no longer envied the winged birds.
They came upon the man who had been rummaging through garbage. Andrei looked at him, and everything became clear.
"You," he said to the man, "are searching for lost coins in the garbage, but you’re wasting your time. Better take up work—you’ll earn those coins faster than you’ll find them."
The man listened, started working, and soon earned wealth and money.
They walked on and saw the man who had been propping up the fence. Andrei looked at him and said:
"Don’t prop up what’s rotten—it will fall anyway. Build a new fence instead."
The man listened and built a new fence to replace the rotten one.
They reached the man sitting on the stone, who didn’t know how long he had to sit there. Andrei said to him:
"Don’t be so greedy, man. Let other travelers sit on this stone too."
Andrei took the man off the stone and sat down with the maiden. The man ran home, happy.
They rested a little and then continued on to the land where Andrei lived.
And now it wasn’t Andrei who asked people about everything—it was people who asked him.
And so Andrei became the wisest of all.
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