Keloglan and the Bird of Fortune

Once upon a time, the sultan of a land died with no one to take his place. That land had an old custom: to choose the new sultan, the bird of fortune was set free. Whoever's head it landed on became sultan. All the people gathered in the city square. The lords put on their finest robes and held their heads high; each of them hoped the bird would land on his head.

That day Keloglan was in the square too. He had come to the city with his donkey to sell firewood. When he saw the crowd, he grew curious and watched from a corner. The bird of fortune was released from its cage, circled the square three times, and glided down to land on Keloglan's bald head.

For a moment the square fell silent, and then everyone began shouting: "Impossible! A bald woodseller can't be sultan! The bird made a mistake!" They set the bird free again. Again it landed on Keloglan's head. They released it once more, and once more it landed on Keloglan's head. At last the vizier said, "A custom is a custom. The bird has chosen three times." Keloglan was led to the palace, utterly bewildered.

Keloglan sat on the throne, but he was never at ease. The lords of the palace laughed at him behind his back: "What does this bald boy know about ruling a country?" Keloglan said nothing. But every morning he got up early, went into a room in the palace, locked the door, and came out an hour later. No one knew what he did in that room.

As he ruled, Keloglan always thought of his own village, of the poor and of the farmers. He made the taxes fair and had fountains and bridges built. He forbade the judges to take bribes. But some of the lords in the palace, who had grown rich unfairly in the old days, did not like Keloglan at all. One day they went to him and slandered him: "My sultan, every morning you go into a locked room. They say you hide the treasury there. You are stealing the people's wealth."

Keloglan smiled: "Come, let's open the room together." The lords went into the room. Inside there was neither gold nor jewels. Only, in a corner, an old patched cloak and a woodcutter's axe hung on a nail. The lords were astonished: "What are these?"

Keloglan explained: "These are the clothes I was wearing on the day the bird of fortune landed on my head. Every morning I come in here and look at them. And I tell myself: Keloglan, don't forget, yesterday you were a poor man selling firewood. Tomorrow you may be one again. This throne is not yours; it is something the people have entrusted to you."

The lords hung their heads. Those who had slandered him were ashamed and begged the sultan's pardon. Keloglan forgave them, but he gave each of them a woodcutter's axe as a present: "Hang this on the wall of your house. Look at it every morning."

Keloglan ruled justly for many years. His mother came to the palace too, but she chose to live in its smallest room. The people called Keloglan's reign "the years of plenty". When Keloglan grew old, they set the bird of fortune free once more; this time it landed on a shepherd's head. Keloglan gave the shepherd his own old cloak: "Keep this, my boy. Look at it always, and never forget."

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 never forgot where he came from.