In a town on the banks of the Tigris, wise men and scholars from all over the world liked to meet to teach their knowledge to young people. Among the students was a young man who was a particularly keen learner. Once he heard a scholar say the following: "I have met a sage who surpasses all the sages in this world, and yet he lives without fame in a smithy and works there like his father and grandfather before him." From then on, the young man always had to think of the wise man and so he asked his parents: "Please, let me go and learn from the wise blacksmith!" But his parents didn't want to let him go. "You already know so much. You are more learned than all the other pupils. Wait until you're older before you go on your journey." But the young man's impatience was burning, so he stayed at home, but he fell ill and got worse every day. Then his parents finally let him go.

The young man set off on his journey. He travelled for seventy days and seventy nights. Then he came to the city where the wisest of all wise men lived.  The young man looked for the smithy and found a very old man there. He looked at him and asked: "What do you want?"

"Master, I want to learn the wisdom of life."

The master was silent. Then he reached for the rope that wound up the bellows of the forge and said: "Pull the rope!"

The young man obeyed. He pulled the rope until the sun went down. At night he slept in a corner of the workshop and the next day he got up and pulled the rope again. A few days, weeks, months, a whole year passed like this. Finally, two years had passed. Then the young man turned to the master again and asked: "Teach me the wisdom of life!"

"Pull the rope!" replied the blacksmith, and so the young man pulled the rope, day after day, week after week, year after year.

When five years had passed, the wise blacksmith approached the young man in the evening and said: "Now you can return home. All the wisdom of life is in your soul, for I have taught you patience."

The young man bowed deeply to his master, left the smithy and returned happily to his country.

Fassung Djamila Jaenike, nach: R. und P. Soupault, Märchen aus fünf Kontinenten, Vevey 1968,, englische Fassung Lysander Jaenik ©Mutabor Märchenstiftung