Once upon a time there lived a padishah. He had seven wives but no children. He spent every day mourning over this. One day he became so sad that he even went to bed. Then a fakir knocked at his palace and asked for a charitable gift. The Shah stood up and gave him a handout.

"Oh, Padishah," said the fakir. "I am prepared to make any sacrifice for you, tell me, why are you so sad?"

"I have seven wives, but no son. That's why I'm so sad," said the padishah.

"Come with me," said the fakir. They left the city and came to a tree. The fakir broke a branch with seven leaves and handed it to the padishah.

"Take these leaves," said the fakir, "and give them to your wives. Let each of them eat a leaf."

The padishah returned to his palace and gave each woman a leaf. But a mouse came running and nibbled half of one of the leaves.

When the time came, each of the seven women gave birth to a son for the padishah. Only the woman who had got half the leaf gave birth to a boy who was only half the size of the others. She called him Nim-Kuni.

Years passed. The padishah's sons grew up and became strong and tall. The father gave each of the six sons a horse, but Nim-Kuni was given a cat as a mount. The six sons were given spears to test their strength and dexterity, while Nim-Kuni was given a spindle. Once the princes tested their dexterity. But none of them hit the target. Then Nim-Kuni rode up on his cat, jumped under the horses and hit the centre of the target with his spindle. The brothers were ashamed.

"Don't always follow us," they said to Nim-kuni, "don't always do what we do." But he didn't obey them. Wherever they went, he went too, sometimes without them realising.

Once the brothers went hunting, but they didn't want to take Nim-Kuni with them. He rode along anyway and hid under one of the horses with his cat.

After they had ridden for a while, they got hungry. They passed a garden. There were marvellous melons growing behind a fence. "If only Nim-Kuni were here," said one of the brothers, "he would climb through the fence and get us some melons." No sooner had Nim-Kuni heard these words than he burst out with his cat, climbed through the fence and fetched melons. The brothers ate the melons and then said, "Now ride home and don't keep following us!" But Nim-Kuni continued to follow them, always hiding under the horses. So they rode and rode and finally came to the steppe. There lived an old sorceress who ate human flesh. As night had fallen, the brothers had to sleep in the old woman's hut. The old woman said: "Go to sleep!" The brothers were afraid of the sorceress and whispered: "If Nim-Kuni were here now, he would save us." When Nim-Kuni heard the words, he came out and said to the old woman: "Give us something to eat first, then we'll go to sleep."

The old woman prepared the food and when everyone was full, she said: "Go to sleep now!" Then Nim-Kuni said: "We're thirsty. Fetch us some water in a sieve first." The old woman went to the river with the sieve. But Nim-Kuni called out to his brothers: "Quick, we have to flee!" They hurried away as quickly as they could, because it wasn't long before the old woman realised that you can't fetch water in a sieve. When she got to the house and saw that the guests had gone, she said angrily: "They've tricked me, but I'll catch them!"

Meanwhile, the six brothers had returned home with their fast horses. Only Nim-Kuni had stayed behind and the old woman caught up with him. Just as she was about to grab him, he crawled into a cave. She sat down in front of the hole and waited. She fell asleep and Nim-Kuni took his spindle and killed her.  Then he got on his cat and rode home. There Nim-Kuni told how he had saved the brothers from death. The padishah listened in amazement and praised Nim-Kuni.

From that day on, he was always allowed to ride with his brothers.

Märchen aus Afghanistan, ©Fassung Djamila Jaenike, nach: M. Lorenz, Afghanische Märchen, Leipzig 1985, englische Fassung Lysander Jaenike © Mutabor Märchenstiftung