Once upon a time, there was a poor man in more than seven countries. This poor man had a very good heart, and if he had no guest, he went out into the street, took a catch, and as the day went by, he took his share from the chamber.
How, how not, once the king came to the poor man, and made him drink, though he knew not whom he honoured at table. While they ate and lingered, they talked of many things, and among other things the poor man found himself saying, "Hey, if I could be king!
The king said nothing, but smiled to himself, and then thanked him for his supper, took his leave, went home, and there suddenly ordered the soldiers to go and fetch the poor man, and when he was asleep to bring him to the palace and lay him in his bed.
The soldiers bring the poor man and lay him in the king's silk bed. Oh, sweet Jesus, was the poor man amazed in the morning when he woke up in the silk bed, whose wood was gold!
He wondered, he wondered to himself, how he had got here; where could he be, perhaps in the bright heavens? Well, he did not wonder long, for suddenly the servants came in.
And till then the servants swore, and bowed down before him, and asked him with great humility:
- What can I do for you, my King? But the poor man has only just begun to stare!
He told the butlers:
- I'm not a king, what are you talking about?
- Yes, indeed, your snake is king! - confirmed the servants.
And so long they said, so long they swore, that the poor man believed it.
- 'Well, if I am king,' he said, 'call in twelve maidens.
The servants ran out, and in a moment the twelve maidens were standing before him.
- What can I do for you, my King? - asked the hajdúk.
- That these footmen should be paid a good twenty-five.
The maidens promptly took the footmen off their twenty nails, and fiddled twenty-five of them separately, innumerable, so that their knickers were so dusty. Now the poor man really believed he was king.
But his kingdom lasted only one day, and it was a Pentecostal kingdom, for in the evening, as soon as he fell asleep, the king took the poor man home, and the next morning he woke up in his bed with the straw sack. As soon as he opened his eyes, his wife attacked him, scolding him like a bush, because he had been circling there all night and all day.
- Where has kend been?! What was kend doing?! Always stealing God's blessed day!
- 'O wife,' cried the poor man, 'look at me as if I were a king!
- Crazy kend?!
The whole village gathered in front of the house. Just then the king arrived, for he had no peace: he wanted to see what the poor man was doing after his one-day kingdom.
- What are you two fighting about? - asked the king.
- "Oh, listen to me, my soul," said the woman, "my lord has gone mad. He thinks he is king.
- For it was a day, said the king, but the real one - that's me! Come, come to my court, and there you shall have nothing to lose.
The poor man and his wife moved into the courtyard, and they had no more need of salt or wood, and lived as nobly as a count and a countess. But they did not appreciate the gentlemanly way, they spent more than the king was entitled to.
Once they asked for money this way, and another time that way, but the king said to the poor man:
- Do you hear, you would also spend the treasure of Darius. If you ever come to me for money again, I'll have you taken from my court on a dog's tail.
Hm, that was a Hungarian speech! But the poor man did not fall on his head.
- "Stop, King," he said to himself, "I'll open your purse anyway!
He took his wife and sent her to the queen to tell her that her lord, that is, he was dead, and to give her money, for she had nothing to bury him with. So the wife goes up to the queen, and with a bitter wail tells her that her lord is dead, and what shall she bury him with, alas, when she has not a copper coin to give him!
The queen took pity on him and gave him a good deal of money, but after a day or two it was gone. Then the poor man went to the king, and he said that his wife was dead, and he had nothing to bury her with. He cried like a shower, and the king was so touched by his heart that he gave him a handful of banknotes.
No sooner does the poor man go out than the queen comes in and says to her lord:
- Well, your poor man is dead.
- How could he have died! He left here at that moment. He didn't die, his wife did.
- But the poor man died! For I had his wife, and I gave him money to bury her with.
The king and queen had a good fight, and as they could not do each other justice, they went down to the poor man's lodging to see which one was really dead. But the poor man smelt the saffron, and looked out of the window to see if the king was coming.
As soon as he saw it, he suddenly lit candles, he and his wife lay down on the ground, covered themselves with a black sheet, put the candles to their heads, closed their eyes and lay like the real dead. The royals entered the room, looked and looked at the dead, and the queen even had tears in her eyes.
- You see, you see, they are both dead.
- "Yes," said the king.
- I just want to know which one died first. I'd give a sack of gold to anyone who could tell me.
But the poor man jumped on it.
- I died first, my majestic king!
The king laughed a great deal at this, and immediately measured out a bag of gold for the poor man, but he kept no more in his court.
- 'Just go home with the news of God,' he said to them, 'get on as best you can!
After all, they have managed. They bought so much land for the sack of gold that they became the biggest farmers in the village. They are still alive today, if they are not dead.
