Princess Belafur

Once upon a time there was a man who had two sons. When they grew up, the eldest went to develop far away, and no one heard anything from him for many years. The younger son stayed at home with his father. Later, his father died, leaving behind a large fortune.

The younger son, who stayed at home, squandered the wealth left by his father, feeling that it belonged to him alone. So it went on for a while. One day, he came downstairs and was surprised to see a stranger in the living room. The stranger looked around as if this was his home.

"Have you forgotten me?" the stranger asked.

"I never knew you, why should I forget?" he replied rudely.

"I'm your brother," the stranger replied. "I'm home, and I didn't make any money outside. To make matters worse, as soon as I got back to the village, they told me that my father was gone. If I could meet him, the little gold I lost would not matter."

"He died six months ago," the rich brother replied. "He left you the old wooden box in the attic, you'd better look for it, I don't have time to waste." Then he left.

The attic was at the top of the house's warehouse. My brother climbed up to the attic and found the wooden box. The box is very old and looks like it will break into pieces at any time.

"What does this thing do to me?" he thought. "Well, it can also make a fire to keep me warm, after all, things aren't that bad."

So this man named Joseph carried the box back to his hotel, borrowed an axe, and started hacking the box. Hacking and hacking, he suddenly found a secret drawer in the box containing a piece of paper. When he opened the paper, he was surprised to find that it was a confirmation of a huge loan, indicating that someone owed his father a huge sum of money. He put the precious note carefully in his pocket, and hurriedly asked the landlord where to find the debtor on the note, and he immediately ran to find the man.

The debtor was an old miser who lived at the other end of the village. For months he had hoped that the IOU he had written down was lost or damaged. When he saw the IOU, he was very reluctant to pay the debt. However, Joseph threatened to drag him to the king, and the miser couldn't help but pay it back. The money could only be counted to Joseph dollar by dollar. Joseph put the money in his pocket and went back to the hotel. Now he felt like a rich man too.

A few weeks later, he was walking down a nearby street when he heard a woman crying in pain. He stopped to ask what had happened, she cried that her husband was dying, and to make matters worse, a creditor came to the door and demanded that they pay back the money, and if they couldn't, they would send her husband to jail.

"Don't be sad," Joseph said softly. "They will neither send your husband to jail nor sell your belongings. I will pay your debts for you. Of course, if your husband dies, I will pay for the funeral. Please go home and take good care of him."

Despite the woman's best efforts to care for her husband, he died and the stranger paid for everything. But soon he found that the cost was beyond his budget and he had only three pieces of gold left.

"What should I do now?" he said to himself. "I think I'd better go to court and find something to do and serve the king."

At first, he was just a servant who helped the king pour the bath water and make the bed, but because he was so dutiful, his master soon noticed him and promoted him to bedside.

At this time, his younger brother had spent all his inheritance and did not know how to survive. He wanted to do things for the king and be loved by the king, so he went to the palace to find his older brother, crying and begging him for help, begging the older brother, who had been treated so badly by him, to help him find an errand in the palace. The older brother was always helpful, so he went to the king to seek a position for him, so the next day, the younger brother began to work in the palace.

However, the younger brother was evil and jealous by nature, and he could not bear anyone's luck better than him. By peeping and eavesdropping through the keyhole in the door, he knew that the old and ugly king was in love with Princess Bellafur, but the princess did not want to see him, and no one knew where she was hiding in a castle on a mountain.

"Very well," the younger brother thought, gearing up, "it would be easy for the king to send my brother to find the princess. If he can't find her, he will fall to the ground. Anyway, he won't stand in my way."

He immediately went to the palace minister and said that he had something very important to report to the king. The king saw him and told him to speak quickly.

"Oh, Your Majesty! It's Princess Belafur..." he replied, pausing to pretend to be frightened.

"What's the matter with Princess Belafur?" the king asked impatiently.

"I heard... it was quietly circulating in the court... Do you want to know where she is hiding?"

"If someone brings her to me, I will give half of the kingdom to that person," the king said eagerly. "Go on, you rascal, did the birds in the sky reveal her whereabouts to you?"

"I don't know, but my brother does," replied the man who betrayed his brother. "Your Majesty, should you ask him..." Before he could finish his words, the king used his scepter to hit hard on the gold plate hanging on the wall.

"Order Joseph to come at once," he cried loudly to the servant, who hurried to call Joseph. Joseph entered the hall, not knowing what was going on. The king was so angry that he could hardly speak.

"Bring me Princess Belafur at once." He stuttered a little, "If you don't bring her back, I'll drown you." The king said nothing else, got up and left the hall, leaving Joseph standing there alone, surprised and frightened.

"I've never seen Princess Belafur, so how can I bring her back?" he thought, "but it's obviously useless to stay here, just wait to die." So he walked slowly to the stable and chose a horse.

There were many good horses in the stable, and their names were set in gold on their respective stables. Joseph passed one by one, hesitating, not knowing which horse to choose. Then an old white horse turned his head and motioned for him to go over.

"Choose me," it whispered softly, "and everything will go well."

Joseph was still upset about the king's task, so he was not surprised to hear the horse speak. He mechanically placed the saddle on the old white horse and led it out of the stable. Just as he was about to mount the horse, the horse spoke again: "Pick up the three loaves of bread over there and put them in your pocket."

Joseph didn't ask anything, did as the horse said, and got into the saddle.

They walked for a long time without encountering any difficulties. Finally they came to an ant nest and the horse stopped.

"Break those three loaves of bread and throw them to the ant," it said, but Joseph hesitated.

"Why, we have to eat it ourselves!" he replied.

"Don't mind that, leave the bread to the ants, and don't pass up any opportunity to help others." So Joseph put the crumbs in the middle of the road, then followed the horse gently over the ants and left.

After a long walk, they came to a rocky passage between the two mountains. There they saw an eagle caught in a net set by a hunter.

"Go down and cut the net and let the poor bird go," said the horse.

"But it would be a waste of time," Joseph objected, "and we might miss the princess because of it."

"Don't mind, don't pass up any opportunity to help others." The horse replied. The net was finally cut, and the eagle was free, and they moved on.

They walked a long way, and finally came to a river, and a small fish lay panting and struggling on the beach. The horse said, "Did you see that little fish? If you don't put it in the water, it will die."

"But if we waste time like this, we won't be able to find Princess Belafur." Joseph called.

"Helping others is never a waste of time," the horse replied. So at the horse's insistence, the little fish was put into the river and swam away happily.

Before long, they found a castle deep in a dense forest, with Princess Belafur feeding the chickens ahead.

"Listen," said the horse, "I'll do all kinds of jumps to please Princess Belafur. Then she'll tell you that she wants to ride me for a short distance, and you'll have to help her get on the horse. And when she sits on my back, I'll start screaming and kicking, and then you'll tell her that this horse has never carried a woman before, so you'd better sit behind her, that's easy to ride. As soon as you get on the horse, I'll run like the wind towards the king's palace."

Joseph did exactly what the horse taught him, and everything went as he expected. They kept galloping towards the palace without stopping, and the princess knew that she had been captured. However, she didn't say anything, just quietly opened her apron and threw the chicken-feeding bran inside on the ground.

"Oh, my bran is gone!" she cried. "Please come down and help me pick them up."

Joseph just said, "We're going to a place with a lot of gluten." He continued to beat the horse and continued on his way.

As they passed a forest, the princess took out her handkerchief and threw it up, and the handkerchief hung on the tallest branch.

'My God, I'm so stupid! My handkerchief was blown away, 'she said.' Can you climb the tree and get it back for me? '

But Joseph replied, "There are many handkerchiefs where we go." Then the horse continued to gallop.

After passing the forest, they came to a river when a ring on the princess' hand slipped and rolled into the water.

She cried and said, "How careless I was! I lost my favorite ring. Can you stop and let me look for it?"

But Joseph replied, "Where we go we can find many rings." The horse went on.

At last they returned to the palace, and the king was overjoyed to see his beloved Princess Belafur. But the princess pushed him aside as if he were a fly, and locked herself in the nearest room, no matter how much he pleaded, he would not open the door.

"Maybe I'll think about finding my three items that fell on the road." She only said these words. The king was quite desperate and could only discuss it with Joseph.

"I can't find a solution," said the king. "Only you know where they fall, so you should go and get them back, or I'll drown you."

Poor Joseph was very embarrassed by this. He thought his life would not be in danger if he had done the task the king asked. He bent down to salute the king in return, and went out to complain to his horse friend.

"Don't be embarrassed." The horse heard the whole thing and said to the poor man, "Come up, let's find those things." Joseph immediately got on his horse.

They kept going and came to the ant nest. At this time, the horse asked, "Would you like to find the bran?"

"What's the use of being willing?" Joseph asked.

"Call the ants and ask them to help you find them. If any are blown away by the wind, replace them with the crumbs you gave them." Joseph listened in surprise. He didn't really believe in the horse's plan, but he couldn't think of a better way, so he called the ants and begged them to collect the bran as soon as possible.

Then he sat under a tree and waited, while the horse nibbled on the grass.

"Look!" the horse suddenly looked up and said to him. Joseph was behind him and saw a pile of bran piling up into a hill. He put the bran in a bag and hung it on the saddle.

"Good intentions are rewarded," said the horse, "come up, we have to go further."

They came under the tree again and saw the handkerchief swinging like a flag on the highest branch, and Joseph was frustrated again.

"How can I get that handkerchief?" he shouted, "I should find a ladder!" But the horse replied, "Don't be intimidated. Call the eagle you let go of the net, and it will give you the handkerchief."

Joseph called the eagle, and the eagle flew to the top of the tree and took the handkerchief back with his mouth. Joseph thanked him and rode to the river again.

It had rained heavily the night before, and the river was no longer as clear as usual and became turbulent and turbid.

"I don't know where it fell, and I can't see it. How can I get the ring back from the bottom of this river?" Joseph asked.

The horse replied, "Don't be afraid. Didn't you save a little fish's life? Call it for help and it will find the ring for you."

He called to the fish, and the little fish dived to the bottom, slid behind the big rock, gently moved the small rock with its tail, and finally found the ring. It held the ring in its mouth and gave it to Joseph.

Joseph happily returned to the palace with these things. But when the king gave these precious items to Princess Belafur, she said she would never open the door unless the robber who had taken her captive was thrown into the oil pan.

"I'm sorry," the king said to Joseph. "I don't want that either. But please understand that I have no choice."

While the oil was still heating in the cauldron, Joseph went to the stable and asked his friend if he couldn't escape this time.

"Don't be afraid," the horse replied. "Ride on my back, and I'm going to run with all my strength until I'm soaked with sweat. Then rub the sweat on your skin. That way, no matter how hot the oil is, you won't feel it."

Joseph did as the horse ordered without asking any further. When people put him in the boiling oil pan, they were very confused to see his relaxed expression. He was not picked up until Princess Bellafur thought he had been fried. But in front of everyone was a handsome young man, and everyone liked him, especially Princess Bellafur, who was already deeply in love with the young man.

As for the old king, when he saw that he had failed, he jumped into the cauldron in desperation, replaced Joseph, and was blown up alive. Then, everyone made Joseph king on the condition that he promised to marry Princess Belafre the next day. But the first thing he did was go to the stable to find the horse and say to it, "If it weren't for you, I wouldn't live now, and I wouldn't have this throne, why would you do so much for me?"

The horse replied, "I am the soul of that unfortunate man. You spent almost all your wealth for me. When I saw that your life was in danger, I took the initiative to help you, as you had helped me. Because, as I said to you, good intentions are rewarded!"