Keloglan and the Forty Bandits

Once upon a time, at the foot of the mountains, there was a small, lovely village. Its people were hardworking and its fields were fertile. But for some time they had had a great trouble: forty bandits lived up on the mountain. Every harvest the bandits came down and carried off the village's wheat, sheep, butter and honey. The villagers were too frightened to say a word.

One evening, while the old men were sharing their troubles in the village coffee house, Keloglan was sitting in a corner. "I'll play a trick on these bandits," he said. Everyone laughed: "What can one bald boy do against forty men?" Keloglan laughed too: "Forty men have one mind between them, and I have one mind too. We're even."

The next morning Keloglan loaded two jars onto his donkey. He filled one with honey and the other with water, and into the water he stirred pepper and salt. He also put a little bell and a bucket of ashes in his saddlebag. He took the mountain road. He went a little way, he went a long way, and the bandits' lookout saw him: "Stop! What are you carrying?" "I'm taking honey to the sultan's palace," said Keloglan. "This honey is magic. Whoever eats it becomes as strong as forty men."

The lookout took him to the bandit chief. The chief was huge, with a black moustache and a booming voice. "Strong as forty men? Give me that honey!" "I can't," said Keloglan. "This honey must be eaten at midnight, or it loses its power. And first I must recite its spell." The bandits grew curious and let Keloglan stay in their cave as a guest.

When night fell, Keloglan gathered the bandits around the fire. "Close your eyes. While I recite the spell, nobody must open them. If anyone does, the honey will turn bitter." The bandits squeezed their eyes shut. First Keloglan opened the honey jar and put a fingertip of honey on everyone's lips. The bandits said "Mmm!" with delight. Then he quietly opened the other jar and filled the bowl in front of each of them with the peppery, salty water. "Now drink this magic sherbet, without opening your eyes!"

The bandits gulped it down. In a moment the cave was full of shouting and yelling: "I'm burning! My mouth is on fire!" Everyone ran here and there looking for water. Just then Keloglan poured the bucket of ashes onto the fire, and the cave became pitch dark and smoky. Ringing the bell, he shouted: "The sultan's soldiers are here! Forty horsemen are coming!"

In the darkness the bandits mistook each other for soldiers and started grappling. Some ran out of the cave and jumped into the stream, some fled into the forest. Within an hour there was not a single bandit left in the cave. Keloglan lit a torch, and at the back of the cave he saw everything that had been stolen from the villages over the years: sacks of wheat, copper cauldrons, woollen carpets, purses of gold.

In the morning Keloglan went down to the village and brought the villagers up to the cave with carts. Everyone recognised their own belongings and took them home. With the gold that belonged to no one, they built a new fountain and a school for the village.

And the bandits? They never dared to come back to that mountain again. Because among them a saying went round: "In that village there's a bald boy as strong as forty men."

That evening, when Keloglan came home, his mother asked him: "Son, weren't you afraid?" Keloglan laughed: "I was afraid, Mother. But fear has a mind of its own too; you just have to use it." 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 turned his fear into wisdom.