Randgroep

Once upon a time there were an ascetic, a wood carver, a goldsmith and a weaver on their way to the big city. It became very dark and they had to stop somewhere, to sleep for the night. So with the four they made the deal that each one has to stay awake for two hours by turn to play the wachtman while three were sleeping. Cause there was a lot of scum in the surroundings.

The wood carver was the first to guard the night; he saw a piece of wood just as big as a human. He created a statue of an extreme beautiful woman and when the two hours were done, the statue was finished.

He woke up the weaver and went to sleep. The weaver saw the statue of an extreme beautiful woman but she had no clothes on. He thought: I've got cotton, let me make some clothes for the statue. He weaved some cloth and made this statue some beautiful clothes. And when his two hours were done, he finished his job. He dressed the statue and woke up the goldsmith.

This man saw the statue, wich looked very good, with beautiful clothes on. 'It's a pity,' he thought, 'that this statue doesn't wear no adornments. It will do some good when I will make her some.' When his two hours were done, he was finished. 'So now her pretty face looks even much better,' he thought, and woke up the ascetic.

He saw the statue and thought: 'A beautiful woman, beautifully dressed, extreme good looking though not perfect. She has no breath. This is the statue made by my three companions, I must make this work complete,' went through his mind. 'I must beg to the Elevated Allah for life. Life for this statue. Maybe Allah will hear my plea.'

And then he took some holy water and prayed two rakats when he begged for breath for the statue. By the mercy of the Elevated Allah the statue came to life!

It was dawn already and the other three woke up. The wood carver said: 'She's mine, cause I created her!'

But the weaver said: 'I have more rights cause I was the one who made her clothes.' And then the goldsmith: 'No, she's mine cause I was the one who spend gold on her. The ascetic: 'What ever you all may say but I was the one who begged for Allah's mercy to let her come to life.' This all became a fight.

And then the monk said: 'What's the use of this fight? Let's go to the big city, let's go to court.' And there they go and took the woman with them.

On their way they met a young man and told him about what happened.

'Wait a minute,' the young man said, 'this woman is my wife. She disappeared a long time ago with lots of my belongings.'

On that moment the chief of police passed by and each told him the whole story. But when the chief of police saw how beautiful this woman was, he said: 'I swear, this woman is the wife of a salesman who died a short while ago. She must come with me cause that salesman was my brother. This woman dissapeared a long time ago and now I'll take care of her again. No other way, let's meet in court.'

And there they were then, all in front of the judge. All have their own version of the story. And when the judge saw how extreme beautiful this woman was, he said: 'This woman is one of my companions, a long time ago she disappeared and now she must come with me.' A new fight has just started again, cause they all fell in love with the same woman.

And by the will of Allah, the Supreme Being, a man appeared out of nowhere. A man no one knew and of whom no one knew where he came from either. He said: 'Don't fight any longer, just go to the tree in the big field, overthere you all will find your final decision.'

They all went to the big field to find the tree, and took the woman with them.

Near the tree the ritual of each telling their version repeated. And then the big tree cracked open in two and the woman went to sit in the opening. Out of the tree came the voice of the woman wich said: 'Everything returns to it's origin.'

The tree closed again and everything was just like before.

All seven were desperate and each of them returned to their places.

Nieuwe Indonesische sprookjes...