Lilac Fairy Book

Chapter 20 Morty (1)
Once upon a time there was a boy named Moti, who was tall and strong, but also unbelievably stupid.He was stupid as hell, and his big feet kept stepping into the bowl of sweet milk or cheese that Mom kept cooling on the floor.He was always breaking, knocking over, or breaking things, and at last his father had to say to him, "Mote, here are fifty silver pieces we've accumulated over the years, and you take them to make a living. You live on them if you can." Go get rich."

So, one spring morning, Moti put his thick crutch on his shoulder early in the morning and set off.As he walked, he sang happily alone.

He walked mile after mile, and the trip went very well.At last, one hot evening, he came to a city, and went to spend the night in a traveller's inn or hotel.You must know that an inn is usually just a large square surrounded by high walls, and an open-air colonnade is built along the wall around the square for people and animals to rest.There may be rooms in the towers at the corners of the square for those too rich and proud to sleep with their camels and horses.Of course, Moti was a country boy who had lived with cows all his life, and he was neither rich nor proud, so he just borrowed a bed from the hotel owner and put it at the end to remind him of his own home. Next to the old buffalo, he fell asleep after 5 minutes.

In the middle of the night, he felt that someone was rummaging through the things around him. When he woke up, he stretched out his hand to the pillow and found that the money bag had been stolen.He got up quietly and began to walk around to see if anyone was awake.Though he purposely fell upon a few men and beasts to wake them, he encountered not one who might be a thief, and wandered in vain in the shadows of the arches round the whole inn.He was about to give up the idea of ​​catching the thief, but at this moment, he overheard two people whispering, and one of them laughed softly.He peeped from behind a post and saw two Afghan horse dealers counting money from his purse, and Moti went back to sleep.

In the morning, Moti followed the two Afghans out of the city and came to the horse market.Their horses are there for sale.He chose the most beautiful horse among them, and going up to it, he said, "Is this horse for sale? May I try it?" The two merchants agreed.He climbed on the back of the horse, touched his heels inward, and galloped away one by one.Moti had never ridden a horse in his life, so he put his hands around the horse's neck in panic, put his legs on the horse's back, and let the horse gallop freely.Presently the horse broke into a gallop, and ran straight back to the inn where he had spent the last few nights.

"Excellent," thought Morte, as he rode through the door of the inn.The horse ran to the stable and stopped automatically. Moti immediately got off the horse, then jumped up, tied the horse, and ordered some breakfast.Soon, two Afghans trotted out of breath to claim the horse.

"What do you mean?" exclaimed Moti, mouth full of rice, "that's my horse, and I bought it from you for fifty silver pieces. A good deal, I'm sure !"

"Nonsense! This is our horse," replied an Afghan, and began to unbridle.

"Stop," cried Moti, seizing his stick, "and I'll blow your heads off if you don't let go of my horses! You two thieves! I know you! You stole my money last night, so I It couldn't be more fair to come and lead your horses today!"

Now the two Afghans were beginning to look uneasy. It seemed that Moti had made up his mind to keep the horse, so they decided to sue him.So they ran to the king and charged Morte with stealing one of their horses, and would neither return nor pay for it.

Soon, a soldier came to summon Moti to meet the king.When he reached the palace, he saluted the king, and the king began to ask him why he rode in such a hurry.Moti claimed he had bought the horse for fifty silver pieces, but the two horse dealers swore they had sold other horses for the money.All in all, the debate has become cloudy.The king thought it true that Morte had stolen the horse, so he said at last: "Well, I will tell you what I am going to do about it. I will lock a thing in this box before me, and if Morte guesses right If he guesses wrong, the horse is his, and if he guesses wrong, then the horse is yours."

Morty agreed.The King got up and went out alone through a little door at the back of the court, and presently brought in something tightly wrapped in cloth, hidden under his robes, and slipped it quietly into the box, and locked it, Put it where everyone can see it.

"Now," said the King to Morty, "you guess!"

By chance, when the king opened the door behind him, Morty noticed a garden outside.Before the King came back, he began to wonder what he could find in the garden small enough to fit in that box. "Could it be a fruit or a flower? No, not a flower, for the king held it too tightly. Then it must be a fruit or a stone. No, not a stone, for he would not take a dirty The dirty stone is wrapped in his beautiful and clean clothes. Then it must be a fruit! And it is a fruit with a not very strong fragrance, otherwise he will be afraid that I will smell it. So in this season, what kind of fruit has the best fragrance? What about Nong? If I can figure this out, I can solve the riddle!"

As mentioned earlier, Moti was a country boy who often worked in his father's garden.He was familiar with all the common fruits, so he thought he should be able to guess.In order not to make his conjecture seem too easy, he stared at the ceiling in bewilderment, then put his fingers to his brow as if enlightened, looked down at the ground, then looked at the King, and said slowly: "That's a round, red pomegranate just picked!"

The king knew nothing about fruits except that they were delicious, and at any time of the year he wanted whatever fruit he wanted, and someone was there to make sure he had what he wanted.To him, therefore, Morty's conjecture was nothing short of a miracle, a clear proof not only of his wit but of his innocence, for it was a pomegranate that he had put into the box.Of course, when the king was amazed and praised Moti's wisdom, everyone else followed suit.While the two Afghans were downcast, Moti got the horse and became the king's man.

Morty continued to live in that inn.Returning to the inn one stormy night not long afterward, he found his precious horse missing.Nothing remained but a broken rein, and no one knew what had become of the horse.Morte questioned everyone who might know, and then, seizing the length of rope and his big cane, he set off to find the horse.He walked, walked, and walked, following the horseshoe prints in the mud, out of the city and into a nearby forest.Soon, it was getting late, but Moti was still walking aimlessly.When night fell, he suddenly came across a tiger devouring his horse with relish.

"You thief!" cried Moti, running forward.The tiger was taken aback, and the bone in his mouth fell out.Click!Moti hit him head and face until the tiger was almost out of breath and blind.Moti kept hitting until at last the poor tiger couldn't even stand up.Then his hitter tied the broken rein around his neck, and dragged him back to the inn.

"You have stolen my horse," he said, "and it is only fair that I want you!" He tied the tiger's head and four feet fast as he had tied the horse before.It was very late at that time, and he lay down beside the tiger and fell asleep.

(End of this chapter)