Zgodba o mlinarju in njegovi ženi

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Zgodba o mlinarju in njegovi ženi

It is also told that a man owned a mill, which he worked with a donkey. He had a wicked wife whom he loved, though she hated him. She, in turn, loved a neighbor, but he loathed her and rejected her advances. One night her husband dreamed that someone said to him, “Dig in such-and-such a place along the donkey’s circuit in the mill, and you will find a treasure.” When he awoke, he told his wife of his dream and charged her to keep it secret, but she told her neighbor. Then morning overtook Shahrazad, and she fell silent, leaving her tale untold.

When the three hundred and eighty-eighth night came

She said: It has reached me, O fortunate King, that the miller’s wife told the neighbor she loved about the treasure, hoping thereby to win his favor. He promised to come to her that night, and when he arrived, he dug along the donkey’s circuit in the mill. They found the treasure and brought it out. “What shall we do with this?” the neighbor asked her. She replied, “We shall divide it into two equal shares. You shall leave your wife, and I shall contrive to leave my husband. Then you shall marry me, and once we are together, we shall put all the money together and have it in our hands.” Her neighbor said, “I fear that Satan may lead you astray and you will take another man instead of me, for gold in a house is like the sun in the world. The wisest course is for me to keep all the money, so that you will be eager to free yourself from your husband and come to me.” She replied, “I have the same fear as you, and I will not hand over my share of this money, for it was I who showed you where to find it.” When he heard these words, his wickedness drove him to murder her. He killed her and cast her into the place where the treasure had lain. But daybreak overtook him before he could conceal her body, so he took the money and departed. The miller awoke and could not find his wife. He went into the mill, harnessed his donkey to it, and called out to set it moving. It walked a little way, then stopped. The miller beat it severely, but with every blow it backed farther away, for it had shied at the dead woman and could not be made to go forward. All this time the miller had no idea why the donkey had stopped. He took a knife and prodded it again and again, but it would not stir from its place. At last, in his anger, he stabbed it in the flank, and the donkey fell dead. When daylight came, the miller saw his donkey lying dead and found his wife dead in the place where the treasure had been. He was filled with fury at the loss of the treasure and the deaths of his wife and donkey, and great grief befell him. All this came of his revealing his secret to his wife and her failure to keep it.