The clever woman and the Bey

Умната жена и Бего

A certain young man was a servant in the household of an old merchant. He was kindhearted and childless. When the youth grew up, the merchant adopted him, and married him off. He lived well with his wife, and they honored the old people. In the town where they lived there was a certain bey. He had a daughter whom he kept locked up in her room, so that no man could go to her. The bey guarded her. Only the window could be opened, and through the window she could look outside at the world, otherwise she had no way of getting out into the world.

When the youth would go to the store, it was on his way, he passed by that way. And he was young, well-built; he was good looking. When he would pass by, she took a liking to him. And one day when he passed by, she took a mirror - it was at the window - she turned its front toward him, then she turned its back to him, then she dropped it.

He went, took the mirror, and carried it home to his wife. He said to her:

"Well, wife, the thing is thus and so. While passing by there, the bey's daughter dropped this mirror. You should've seen," he says, "once she turned the front towards me, then the back, then she dropped it. And she didn't say anything to me. I took the mirror. What can all this mean?"

"Husband, she is telling you to go to her."

"Well, now I can't go. When could I go there? She is guarded by a watchman at the door, and I'm supposed to go to her? I don't dare!"

"You'll go. She is telling you to go at night. She will get you through the gate. That's why she dropped the mirror."

And he thought it over a little:

"Ok, wife, I'll go."

"So go," she said.

And he sets off from there one evening, after they closed the store, and went there. She let him up by a rope, and pulled him up to her. You know, she received him there very well. Everything was good. However, at one point, the guard called out to the bey:

"Hey, bey, there's a man with your daughter, and he's an infidel."

"So, is that what’s going on!"

The bey became angry and went out. He looks: it’s an infidel.

"Oh, you swine, what are you doing here?"

And he immediately passed judgment: they will hang the two of them, both him and the daughter. They'll hang them publicly there for everyone to see. And the two of them were frightened because there was nothing they could do. And people told his wife:

"Your young man is there. They will hang him at lunchtime."

She thought for a minute:

"Is that how it is?" She left, took from the priest a censer, cross, a bunch of basil, the priest’s robe, everything. She disguised herself as a priest, and set off for the bey's. She said:

“Bey, you have taken one of our men here, and you will hang him together with your daughter. According to our custom, we must confess him, if you will allow it, before you hang him."

"Ok, come in!” The bey said.

She went in and shut the door. She undressed and told him to undress. She took off the priest's robe and put on her husband’s clothing; he took the priest's robe and the censer, and the basil in his hand and went out through the door So, now, it was already lunch time, twelve o'clock, they'll hang the two of them: both the daughter and the man who had gone to her. They had already taken them up to the gallows. And the custom there was to let them say their last words. They asked him:

"What do you wish your last words to be?"

"There is nothing else to say, except I want to tell the bey that I, myself, am a woman just like his daughter."

"Well, is that how the matter stands."

Two women go over there to see if this one's a woman.

They looked - a woman! And now the bey said:

"And so, why did you go in?"

"In order to show you, that you cannot guard your daughter against a man going up to her. And from then on the bey allowed his daughter to live freely like all the others.