LJanas
Registered User
(2/22/03 10:32:47 am)
| Looking for tale about "troubles"
on a rope
I am trying to locate a fairy tale I read as a child (this was in the 1960s, but I believe the story was in a book that would have been old that time, probably published before 1940).
The story was Middle Eastern -- Turkish? Persian? Arabic? It is set in a village where all the villagers are unhappy, each constantly complaining about his/her own troubles. One day a wanderer arrives who tells the villagers he can make them all happy. He takes out a rope (unwinds it from under his turban?), strings it up like a clothesline, and invites each villager to hang up his/or "trouble" on the rope. (Here the story veers into the fantastic: I seem to remember that one villager hangs up his bald head, another his aching back, and a third his nagging mother-in-law!) The wanderer then asks each person to choose from the line the one "trouble" with which he/she would be most content to live. Lo and behold, each villager chooses his/her original trouble. The village is restored to happiness, and the wanderer goes on his way.
If anyone is familiar with this tale or knows where I might find a copy, I would love to hear from you! Thanks in advance for your help!
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