Three questions
Three questions , also The three questions ( Russian Три вопроса , Tri woprossa ), is a fairy tale by Lev Tolstoy , the writing of which was completed on July 22, 1903 and which was published in the same year by the St. Petersburg book publisher Posrednik with illustrations by Nadezhda Ivanovna Grishina.
content
Once upon a time there was a king who always wanted to do everything right. He promised a reward to those in the Reich who knew who had to do which business and when. The manifold, intelligent answers of the luminaries in religion, the arts of war and other fields of knowledge could not really satisfy the king. All the answerers came away empty-handed.
The king persisted and went to a hermit. He left his bodyguard at the edge of the forest and went on alone. The frail old man dug up the vegetable patch in front of his hermitage. Because the hermit did not answer the three questions, the sprightly king did the gardening. A bearded man came rushing breathlessly and dragged himself bleeding to the cell. The king put the spade aside and gave first aid. It turned out that the newcomer was a potential regicide whose property had been confiscated by the king's officials and whose brother had been executed. The bodyguard recognized the attacker and seriously wounded him.
Before the king went on his way, he asked the hermit to answer his three questions. The old man replied very simply, using the prevented regicide as an example. Which business is the most important? Digging the bed - doing good. Otherwise the king might have gone back and been murdered on the way. Which business partner is the right one? The one the king is dealing with - the hermit. And when is a business to be done? Right now. Because the moment is the only point in time when a person is master of himself.
Web links
- The text
- Three questions in Lev Tolstoy: Selected stories : online in the Gutenberg-DE project (Paul Oestergaard publisher. Translator: August Scholz )
- online at RVB.ru (Russian)
- online at edinstwo.narod.ru (Russian)
- Lew Tolstoy, "Drei_Frauen", text in: DE EN IT FR ES CH
- Entry in the work list
- Entry at fantlab.ru (Russian)