Keloglan and Sly Kose

Once upon a time, in a village, there lived a sly man called Kose. There was not a single hair on his face, but there were a thousand and one tricks in his head. He sold the villagers fake goods, borrowed and never paid back, and cheated everyone one way or another. The villagers were fed up with him, but they could never get the better of him.

One day Kose came to Keloglan: "Keloglan, let's have a contest. Whoever fools the other better gets the other's donkey." "All right," said Keloglan, "but the village headman must be the judge." They agreed.

Kose went first. He brought Keloglan a pot: "This is a magic pot. It cooks food without a fire." He had boiled the pot on the stove beforehand, then took it off the fire and set it down in front of Keloglan; the pot was bubbling away. Keloglan bought the pot for ten gold coins. When he took it home and left it without a fire, it cooled down and never bubbled again. Kose laughed: "The first round is mine!"

The second round was Keloglan's turn. Keloglan caught a hare, and then found a second hare that looked exactly the same. He left one at home. He took the other with him, and while playing in the field in front of Kose, he said, "Hare, run home and tell my mother to make us some soup," and let the hare go. The hare ran off. Then he and Kose went to the house; his mother was cooking soup on the stove, and the hare at home was sitting in a corner. "The hare came and told me, son," said his mother. Kose's jaw dropped, and he bought the messenger hare for a hundred gold coins.

Kose took the hare home. "Look, this hare carries messages," he told his wife. The next day in the field he let the hare go: "Run and tell my wife to get dinner ready!" The hare ran into the forest and was never seen again. When Kose got home, the table was bare. Kose realised he had been fooled. The villagers laughed until they cried.

For the third and last round Kose thought very hard. "This time I'll fool him so well that his donkey will be mine." At night he crept into Keloglan's stable to take his donkey. But Keloglan had guessed he would. Instead of the donkey, Keloglan himself lay in the stable wrapped in a donkey's hide. When Kose grabbed the hide in the dark and pulled it, saying, "The donkey is mine!", the hide spoke in Keloglan's voice: "Master Kose, this donkey agrees to come to your house tonight, but on one condition. He won't carry you on his back; you'll carry him."

Kose trembled with fear. "A talking donkey!" he cried and tried to run, but Keloglan held him tight from inside the hide. At the shouting, the headman and the villagers came running. When they went into the stable with lanterns, they found Kose caught red-handed in Keloglan's stable with a rope in his hand.

The headman gave his verdict: "Kose, you cheated in this contest by sneaking into someone else's stable. Keloglan has won. You must give your donkey to Keloglan. And, more importantly, you must give back everything you have taken from the villagers by trickery." Kose had no choice but to give it all back.

Keloglan did not take Kose's donkey. He gave it back to him: "Keep your donkey, Kose. But from now on, do honest work with it. Carry firewood, carry water, and earn your living by the sweat of your brow." Kose was surprised at first, then ashamed. From that day on he made his living carrying water to the village with his donkey. And the villagers forgave him.

Three apples fell from the sky: one for the one who told this tale, one for the one who listened, and one for Keloglan, who beat the trickster at his own game.