The Old Sultan

Once upon a time, a peasant had a loyal dog named Sultan. As time passed, Sultan grew old, his teeth fell out, and he could no longer bite. One day, the peasant stood at the threshold with his wife and said:

"Tomorrow, I plan to shoot old Sultan. He's no good for anything anymore." But the wife felt sorry for the faithful dog and said:

"But he has served us honestly for so many years. We should feed him out of kindness now."

"Ah, what are you saying?" replied the husband. "You must be out of your mind. He has no teeth left; no thief is afraid of him. He's done his duty and can leave now. When he served us, we fed him well enough."

Meanwhile, the poor dog lay stretched out in the sun, overhearing everything. He grew sad, knowing that tomorrow would be his last day. He had a good friend, a wolf, and that evening, the dog went into the forest to complain about his fate.

"Listen, old friend," said the wolf, "calm down. I'll get you out of this trouble. I have a plan. At dawn tomorrow, your master and his wife will go to mow hay. Since there will be no one left at home, they'll take their little child with them. While working, they always place the child in the shade behind the bushes. You lie down next to the child as if you're guarding him. I'll come out of the forest and snatch the child. Then you chase after me as if you're trying to save him. I'll drop the child, and you'll bring him back to his parents. They'll think you saved him and will be so grateful that they won't harm you. On the contrary, you'll be in their favor, and they'll deny you nothing from then on."

The dog liked this plan, and so it was done. When the father saw the wolf snatch the child and run across the field, he shouted in alarm. But when old Sultan brought the child back, the father began to pet the dog and said:

"Now I won't let anyone harm you. You'll live with us out of kindness until your last day." And he said to his wife, "Go home quickly and cook some tasty soup for old Sultan. It's hard for him to chew. And take a pillow from my bed—I give it to Sultan. Let him sleep on it."

From that day on, old Sultan lived so well that he couldn't have wished for anything better.

Soon after, the wolf came to visit him, pleased that everything had turned out so well.

"Well, old friend," said the wolf, "you'll have to pretend not to see anything once, and I'll find a chance to steal a fat sheep from your master. If we live separately now, it'll be tough for us."

"No, don't count on that," replied the dog. "I'll remain loyal to my master. I won't agree to such a thing."

The wolf thought the dog was just saying that and sneaked in at night to steal a sheep. But faithful Sultan warned his master about the wolf's plan, and the master lay in wait, giving the wolf a good beating with a flail. The wolf managed to escape and shouted to the dog:

"Wait, you wretched friend! You'll regret this!"

The next morning, the wolf sent a wild boar to challenge the dog to a duel in the forest to settle the matter. Old Sultan found no one to help him except a cat, and even she was missing a leg. So they set off together, and the poor cat limped into the forest, raising her tail in pain.

The wolf and his companion were already there. When they saw their opponents approaching, it seemed to them that the dog was carrying a saber—they mistook the cat's raised tail for a blade. And as the unfortunate cat limped on three legs, they thought she was picking up stones to throw at them. They grew frightened: the wild boar hid in the leaves, and the wolf jumped up a tree.

The dog and the cat approached and saw no one, which surprised them. But the wild boar couldn't hide completely—her ears stuck out. The cat looked around carefully, and suddenly the boar's ears twitched. The cat thought it was a mouse moving and pounced, biting the boar hard. The boar let out a great cry, bolted away, and shouted:

"The one responsible for all this is up in the tree!" The cat and the dog looked up and saw the wolf. He felt ashamed for showing himself to be such a coward and made peace with the dog.

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The Old Sultan

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