The Turnip



One brother gets riches from the king for a turnip, the other for riches only turnip. He has brother robbed, but brother is clever!

Once upon a time there were two brothers, both of whom served as soldiers, and one was rich and the other poor. Then the poor man wanted to help himself out of his misery, took off his soldier's tunic and became a farmer. So he dug and hoed his piece of land and sowed turnip seeds. The seed sprouted and a turnip grew there, which grew big and strong and noticeably fatter and would not stop growing at all, so that she could be called the princess of all turnips, because one had never been seen and will never be again be seen. In the end it was so big that it filled a whole wagon by itself, and two oxen had to pull it, and the farmer did not know what to do with it and whether it would be his luck or his misfortune. At last he thought, "If you sell them, how big will you get for them, and if you want to eat them yourself, the small turnips will do the same service: it is best if you take them to the king and do him homage with them." So he loaded it on the cart, harnessed two oxen, brought them to the court, and presented them to the king. "What is that strange thing?" said the king, "many wonderful things have come before my eyes, but such a monster as yet; what kind of seed might it have grown from? Or you'll get it on your own and you're a lucky boy." "Oh no," said the farmer, "I'm not a lucky boy, I'm a poor soldier who, because he couldn't feed himself any longer, hung up his soldier's coat and built the country. I still have a brother who is rich, and you, sir, also know him well, but I, because I have nothing, am forgotten by the whole world.” The king felt pity for him and said, “Your poverty should be lifted from you and receive gifts from me in such a way that you are like your rich brother." So he gave him a lot of gold, fields, meadows and herds, and made him extremely rich, so that the other brother's wealth could not be compared with it. When he heard what his brother had bought with a single turnip, he envied him and wondered how he could turn to such good fortune. But he wanted to start even more cleverly, took gold and horses and brought them to the king and said no differently, he would give him a much larger gift in return, because if his brother had gotten so much for a turnip, what nice things would it do to him don't wear everything. The king took the gift and said he couldn't give him anything in return that was rarer and better than the big turnip. So the rich man had to put his brother's turnip on a wagon and have it driven home. At home he didn't know on whom to take his anger and anger out until evil thoughts came to him and he decided to kill his brother. He won over murderers who had to stand in an ambush, and then he went to his brother and said, "Dear brother, I know a secret treasure that we want to raise together and share." The other put up with it and went without arg with. But when they came out, the assassins fell upon him, bound him, and were about to hang him on a tree. Just as they were above it, a loud song and hoofbeats sounded in the distance, so that they were so terrified that they stuffed their prisoner head over heels into the sack, struggled up the branch, and fled. But he worked upstairs until he had a hole in the sack through which he could stick his head. But whoever came along was nothing but a traveling schoolboy, a young fellow who happily rode along the road through the forest, singing his song. When the one upstairs noticed that someone was passing under him, he called out, "Greetings, at a good hour." The student looked around everywhere, didn't know where the voice was coming from, and finally he said, "Who is calling me?" Then he answered it from the treetop "raise your eyes, I am sitting up here in the sack of wisdom: in a short time I have learned great things, compared to this all schools are a wind: by a little, then I will have learned, descend and be wiser than all People. I understand the stars and heavenly signs, the blowing of all winds, the sand in the sea, healing of illness, the power of herbs, birds and stones. Once you were in it, you would feel what glory flows from the sack of wisdom.” The disciple, hearing all this, marveled and said, “Blessed be the hour when I found you, could I not also a little in come the sack?" The one at the top answered, as if he didn't want to do it, "I will let you in for a little while for a reward and good words, but you must wait an hour, there is a piece left that I need to learn first must.” When the student had waited a little, the time was too long for him and he begged to be let in after all, his thirst for wisdom was too great. Then the one above acted as if he were finally giving in and said, "So that I can leave the House of Wisdom, you must let the sack down by the rope, so you should go in." So the student let him down, untied the sack and freed him, then he himself cried, "Now pull me up really quickly," and wanted to step into the sack while standing up. "Stop!" said the other, "that won't do," grabbed his head, put it upside down in the sack, tied it up, and pulled the disciple of wisdom up the tree by the rope, then waved him in the air and said, " How are you, my dear fellow? Look, you already feel that wisdom is coming to you and that you are gaining good experience, so sit quietly until you become wiser.” With that he mounted the student’s horse and rode away, but after an hour sent someone who had to let him down again.