Tales for Adults

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy is a famous Russian writer, philosopher, pacifist and educational reformer who was born into a wealthy family in the city of Tula, Russia in 1828. I've been to Tula once too. It is a beautiful city that still preserves its old, Russian character.

Tolstoy died in 1910 at the age of 82, but he left behind a lot of novels, short stories, educational works, religious and moral works, works of art and literature, stories, essays, plays and I think the most beautiful ones.

Let me share a beautiful tale with you this time:

One day, apoor villager falls into trouble and decides to ask the wise man of the village for some bread and money. But it won't happen if he goes empty-handed. He catches a goose, cooks it well, and goes to the wise one.

The wise man welcomes him and thanks him, but also says that his family is large and that he does not know how to distribute this single goose fairly. He has a wife, two boys and two girls. Well, and a guest poor peasant.

The villager says, I will distribute it fairly. First he cuts off the head of the goose, gives it to the wise person, he says it's your right, you are the head of this family, the head falls to you. Then he cuts off the tail part, that is, the rest, hands it to the wife of the wise man, says this is your right, you turn this house upside down, you live here, this part of the goose is your right. Then he cuts off the feet of the goose, gives one to the boys, says, you will follow your father's way, the feet are your right. Then he cuts off his wings and gives one to the girls, you girls will fly out of the nest soon, the wings are yours. He says to this poor what is left now and takes the whole goose for himself.

The wise person likes that the poor villager divides the excavations wisely, and he gives the villager both gold and food and sends him off.

From time to time, this event circulates from word to mouth and reaches the ears of an arrogant rich. Thinking that the arrogant rich poor villager was deceiving the wise person, he had five big geese prepared and took them to the wise person, while he wanted to show his own wealth.

The wise man also tells the arrogant rich that his family is large, that they are six, but that the geese are five. He says he doesn't know how to fairly share this gift among them.

It will not happen if the arrogant rich did so, it will not happen if he did so, he cannot find an answer and asks the wise person to call the poor peasant.

The poor and vigilant peasant comes, there are five geese, he hands one to the wise man, this is your share with the lady, you have become three with the goose. He hands one to the boys. That's your share, and you and the goose are three. He hands one to the girls and says you're three. He takes the remaining two geese to himself, and together with the geese, we became three. He says that would be fair.

The wise man rewards the poor peasant with gold and fires the arrogant rich.

Such is the tale of Lev Tolstoy. The tale suggests that it is a good thing to be vigilant, but it is an emphasis that the people in Russia of the time became very poor, this tale has a cynical language against the arrogant rich, and on the one hand, it advises to take care of the poor. It is a children's tale, but it is actually a fairy tale for adults.

I translated it from Russian with my own translation. Wait, someone has translated it with better words before, I don't know that. But it's a fairy tale I love, it's full of reason.

Although there are many such stories in our country, Nasreddin Hodja stories and Black Sea anecdotes always make you laugh and make you think. Sometimes I don't think how similar we are with Russians.

Let me end with a Black Sea joke similar to this fairy tale today. Most of us already know.

Temel and Dursun caught fish, cooked it, and enjoyed it. He stays awake, gives the fish's head to Temel, says you will get smarter, and eats the rest, namely the meaty part himself. After a while, Temel objected that there is no meat in this, and he says, "Didn't you think I didn't tell you, look, the head of the fish has already started to show its effect."

After all, fair distribution of income should be essential in the administration of the country. I think what today's people do is similar to the distribution of geese by the vigilant villager in the fairy tale. Revenue sharing may seem legitimate, legally fair sharing, but in reality it's never fair. Every administration that has come to power has created its own wealth, this is a fact. Those close to power have constantly added wealth to their wealth, like licking their fingers holding honey. But what is being done now is to put a finger in the blind eye. And they do it to show. Moreover, they make serious mistakes in the management of the country. The mistakes made create an opportunity for some to be vigilant about everything and the gap in the income distribution is widening day by day. When things get tough, special requests come from the government to business people to exchange their foreign currency, but it is not clear how much even these requests help in dealing with the situation. It's just been in the news, business people are complaining about the use of credit, and those in the management complain that the money is misused when there is a suitable loan. Everyone, from the industrialist to the ordinary citizen, from the business person to the manager, is suffering. Aside from the economic collapse in the country, everyone is crying about the situation the country has been brought to on every issue. Even those who have money cannot make investment plans due to the anxiety of not seeing the future, those who do not have money are already in trouble to save the day, in a sense, to live. Inflation is low, the cost of living is high, there is not a penny of foreign currency left in the country, the treasury is almost in need of seventy cents, as it once was.

On the contrary, the measures tried to be taken by the administration to control the situation constantly produce new deficits somewhere and only vigilant people benefit from this situation. I'm not saying they do this on purpose, on the contrary, I think they messed up because of the merit problem. I think this will say that what I said is wrong, no, you know wrong, there is no one who will say that the situation is not as you say.

I don't know what the result will be in the upcoming elections, but it seems that the one-man regime that we have been experiencing for a while now is very inadequate for the country's administration, at least very problematic, since there are so many problems. No one has any doubts about this anymore, and I hope we are wiser as a country.

love from Moscow