Keloglan and the Seven-Headed Lie

Once upon a time there was a sultan who loved listening to lies. Whenever he was bored in the palace, he would say, "Tell me a lie that makes my jaw drop." One day he sent out criers: "Whoever tells our sultan the biggest lie will receive a purse of gold! But here is the condition: if the sultan says 'That's a lie!' while listening, the liar gets the gold. If he says 'True,' there is no reward, and the teller's ear will be pulled."

Liars came from every corner of the land. One said, "My sultan, my hen laid a hundred eggs in a day." The sultan laughed: "Could be. My hens are hardworking too." Another said, "My donkey can fly." "I had a donkey once, and it flew too," said the sultan. He never said "a lie" to any of them, and he had all their ears pulled. For the sultan was cunning: to avoid giving away the gold, he said "true" to every lie.

The news reached Keloglan too. Keloglan came to the palace, bowed and greeted him: "My sultan, I haven't come to tell you a lie. I'll tell you something that happened to me." The sultan was pleased: "Go on, bald boy."

"My sultan, last summer I found a flea. The flea was so big that I skinned it and made forty pairs of boots from its hide." The sultan laughed: "True. In my land, fleas grow big." Keloglan went on: "I sold the boots and bought a seed. I planted the seed, and such a tree grew that its branches touched the sky. I climbed the tree and went up into the sky." "True, true," said the sultan. "Plenty of people have gone up into the sky."

"In the sky, my sultan, the angels were threshing wheat. They gave me a handful of wheat. When I wanted to climb down, the tree had dried up! I wove a rope from the wheat, but it was too short. I cut a piece off the bottom and tied it to the top, but it was still too short. I cut and tied and cut and tied, until at last I reached the ground." The sultan giggled: "True. That's how ropes are made longer."

"Then, my sultan, when I reached the ground, I saw a well in my path. At the bottom of the well was a palace, and in the palace sat your late father. Your father said to me: 'My boy, if you go back to the world above, tell my son, when he is sultan: years ago I borrowed forty purses of gold from Keloglan's grandfather. Let my son repay the debt.'"

The sultan leapt to his feet: "A lie! That's a downright lie! My father never borrowed from anyone!" The courtiers roared with laughter. Keloglan bowed: "My sultan, you said 'a lie.' By the condition, a purse of gold is mine."

The sultan understood. If he had said "true," he would have admitted a debt of forty purses of gold; because he said "a lie," he only had to give one. At first he was annoyed, then he could not help laughing too. "You bald rascal! You beat me at my own game," he said, and gave Keloglan the purse. What's more, he called back everyone whose ears had been pulled until that day and gave each of them a gold coin.

Keloglan went back to his village with the gold; he bought a cow for his mother and a ball for the village children. His mother asked: "Son, did you tell the sultan a lie?" Keloglan laughed: "Mother, I just told the sultan his own game back to him. At the end of a game played with tricks, there is always a bald boy waiting."

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 won not with a lie but with his wits.