The Wise Daughter

Once there lived a poor man with his wife. They had a daughter, and it was time to celebrate her birth, but the man had neither bread nor anything to go with it. How could he treat his guests?

The poor man went to the river to fetch water. He filled his buckets and was heading back when he noticed a calf lying in the bushes. It was so weak and sickly that it couldn’t even stand up on its own.

The poor man brought the water home and told his wife about the calf.

“Well, go and take it,” said his wife.

So he returned to the river, took the calf, and brought it home.

“Let’s slaughter it,” he said to his wife. “We’ll have something to treat the guests with.”

But the wife took a liking to the calf—it was so colorful and had a white forehead.

“No,” she said, “let it grow.”

“But it’s so weak. It seems someone abandoned it so it wouldn’t die in the barn.”

“Never mind, maybe we can nurse it back to health. When our daughter grows up, she’ll have milk.”

The husband listened to his wife, and they began to care for the calf.

The calf grew stronger and thrived, and so did their daughter. She turned out to be so clever that even the elders willingly listened to her.

From that colorful, white-foreheaded calf grew a fine cow.

When the girl turned seven, she began to graze the cow herself.

One day, a wealthy neighbor noticed the poor man’s cow.

“Where did you get it?” he asked. The poor man told him the whole story.

“Ah,” said the rich man, “that’s my calf! I abandoned it—I didn’t think it would survive. No, I’ll take my cow back now.”

The poor man was heartbroken.

“But I raised it,” he said. “Now it’s mine.”

The rich man wouldn’t agree.

“If you don’t give it back willingly, we’ll go to the lord and settle this in court.”

What could he do? They went to the lord to settle the dispute. The rich man shook the lord’s hand and greeted him—after all, the rich stick together. The lord said to him:

“Take a seat.”

The rich man sat in a chair, while the poor man stood by the door, hat in hand. The lord didn’t even look at him.

“Well, what do you have to say?” he asked the rich man.

“You see, my lord, here’s the matter,” the rich man began to complain. “Seven years ago, this man took my calf, and now he won’t give it back.”

The lord listened to both the rich man and the poor man, and then he said:

“Very well. My judgment will be this: I’ll give you three riddles. ‘What is the fattest thing in the world?’, ‘What is the sweetest thing in the world?’, and ‘What is the fastest thing in the world?’ Whoever answers correctly will keep the cow. Now go home and think about it. Come back tomorrow with your answers.”

The poor man returned home, sat down, and wept.

“Why are you crying, father?” asked his daughter.

“The rich neighbor wants to take our cow,” replied the father. “We went to the lord to settle it, and he gave us three riddles. Whoever solves them will keep the cow. But how can I solve those riddles?”

“What are the riddles, father?” asked the daughter.

The father told her.

“Don’t worry, father,” said the daughter. “Go to sleep. Morning is wiser than evening—we’ll figure something out tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, the rich man returned home, delighted.

“Well, wife,” he said, “the cow will be ours! We just need to solve three riddles: what is the fattest thing in the world, what is the sweetest, and what is the fastest?”

His wife thought for a moment and said:

“What’s so hard about that? There’s nothing fatter than my spotted boar, nothing sweeter than the linden honey from our bees, and nothing faster than our bay stallion—when it runs, even the wind can’t catch it!”

“True,” agreed the husband. “That’s what I’ll tell the lord.”

The next morning, the rich man and the poor man came to the lord.

“Well, have you solved my riddles?” asked the lord.

The rich man stepped forward:

“There’s nothing to solve: there’s nothing fatter than my spotted boar, nothing sweeter than the linden honey from my bees, and nothing faster than my bay stallion.”

“And you,” the lord asked the poor man, “have you solved them?”

“Yes, my lord: there’s nothing fatter than the earth—it feeds us all; nothing sweeter than sleep—no matter how great the sorrow, when you sleep, it’s all forgotten; and nothing faster than human thoughts—you’re still here, but your thoughts are already far, far away.”

The poor man answered correctly! And so the lord had to award him the cow.

“Who taught you to solve my riddles like that?” he asked the poor man.

“My seven-year-old daughter,” replied the poor man. The lord was amazed—he couldn’t believe that some poor man’s little girl had solved his riddles! He decided to see this clever girl for himself. One day, he went to the poor man’s house, but the man was out in the fields. The seven-year-old daughter greeted the lord.

“Little girl,” asked the lord, “where should I tie my horses?”

The girl looked at the sleigh and the cart standing in the yard and said:

“You can tie them to winter or to summer.”

The lord’s eyes widened: how could one tie horses to winter or summer? The girl must be mocking him!

“Well, you can tie them to the sleigh or the cart,” the girl explained to the slow-witted lord.

The lord realized that the poor man’s daughter was indeed very clever. This upset him. If people found out she was smarter than him, he’d have to flee his estate.

The lord spoke with the girl and left, telling her to send her father to him that evening.

That evening, the poor man came to the lord.
"Well," said the lord, "your daughter is clever. But I am still smarter than her."

The lord gave the poor man a sieve with eggs:

"Here, take this to your daughter and tell her to set a hen on them and hatch me chicks by morning for breakfast. If she doesn’t do it, I’ll have her whipped."

The poor man returned home, downcast. He sat on the bench and wept.

"Why are you crying, father?" asked his daughter.

"Oh, daughter, what a misfortune; the lord has given you a new riddle."

"What is it?"

Her father showed her the sieve with eggs:

"He said you should set a hen on these eggs and hatch him chicks by morning for breakfast. But how can that be done?"

The daughter thought for a moment and said:

"Don’t worry, father, we’ll figure something out tomorrow. For now, mother, take these eggs and fry them for dinner."

In the morning, the daughter said to her father:

"Take this pot, father, and go to the lord. Tell him to clear a field, plow it, sow millet, harvest it, thresh it, and fill this pot with grain—to feed the chicks."

The father went to the lord, handed him the empty pot, and told him everything his daughter had instructed. The lord twirled his mustache and said:

"Your daughter is clever, but I’m still smarter than her."

He took three flax stalks and gave them to the poor man:

"Tell your daughter to pull, spin, weave, and sew me a shirt from this flax by morning."

The father returned home, crestfallen. His daughter asked:

"What did the lord say?"

Her father handed her the three flax stalks and told her what the lord had demanded.

"Don’t worry," replied the daughter, "go to sleep, father; we’ll figure something out tomorrow."

In the morning, the daughter gave her father three maple sticks and said:

"Take these to the lord and ask him to plant them, grow them overnight, and make a loom from them, so there’s something to weave the cloth for his shirt."

The poor man went to the lord, handed him the three sticks, and repeated his daughter’s words.

The lord turned red and said:

"Your daughter is clever—no doubt about it. But I’m still smarter than her! So tell her to come to me not on foot, not on horseback, not naked, not clothed, and bring me a gift that I cannot accept. If she does all this, I’ll take her as my daughter—she’ll grow up to be a lady! If she doesn’t, she’ll regret it..."

The father returned home even more distressed than before.

"Well, father, what did the lord say?" asked the daughter.

"Oh, daughter, you’ve brought trouble upon us and yourself with your clever answers..."

And he told her what the lord had demanded. The daughter laughed:

"Don’t worry, father! We’ll outsmart the lord this time too. Just catch me a live hare."

The father went into the forest, set a trap, and caught a hare.

The daughter took off her shirt, draped a fishing net over herself instead of a dress, sat astride a stick, and rode to the lord with the hare.

The lord stood on the porch and saw that the poor man’s daughter had outsmarted him again! Enraged, he set his dogs on her, thinking they would tear the clever girl apart. But the girl released the hare from her hands—the dogs chased it into the forest.

She approached the lord.

"Catch," she said, "my gift: it’s running into the forest..."

The lord had no choice but to take the clever girl as his daughter. Soon after, the lord went abroad and said to the girl:

"See to it that you don’t judge my people in my absence, or you’ll regret it."

The girl was left alone in the estate. And it so happened that during that time, two peasants went to the fair. One bought a cart, and the other a mare. They hitched the mare to the cart and drove home. On the way, they stopped to rest. They lay down and fell asleep. When they woke up, they saw a young foal running near the cart. The men argued. The one who owned the cart said, "The foal is mine—it’s my cart that foaled!" The one who owned the mare insisted, "No, the foal is mine—it’s my mare that foaled!"

They argued and argued and decided to go to the lord for judgment.

They arrived, but the lord wasn’t home.

"Judge us, then," the men pleaded with the lord’s adopted daughter.

The girl learned of their dispute and said:

"Let the one who owns the mare unhitch her and lead her by the reins, and let the one who owns the cart drag it in the opposite direction."

The foal will follow whoever it chooses, and that will be its owner.

The men did as she said. The foal followed the mare, and their argument was settled.

When the lord returned from abroad, he learned that the clever girl had judged in his absence. He was furious and shouted:

"Why didn’t you listen to me? You’re no longer my daughter. Take whatever you want from the estate and go home, so I never see you again!"

"Very well," said the girl. "But I’d like to treat you to some wine before I go."

"Go ahead," grumbled the lord. "But make it quick."

The girl gave him wine, and the lord fell into a deep sleep. She ordered the servants to harness the horses, placed the lord in a carriage, and took him home. There, with her father, she carried him out of the carriage and laid him on a pile of pea straw in the shed.

"Here," she said, "is your bed instead of a feather mattress. Rest well."

The next morning, the lord woke up and looked around: where was he? He saw his adopted daughter and asked:

"Why am I lying here in a dirty peasant hut?"

"You wanted it this way," laughed the girl. "You told me, 'Take whatever you want from the estate and go home.' So I took you. Get up, take an axe and a hoe, and go work off your labor duty instead of my father. You’re a strong man—you’ll make a decent worker."

Hearing this, the lord jumped to his feet and dashed back to his estate so fast that he was gone in a flash. He didn’t even take the horses or the carriage.

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The Wise Daughter

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