The Trade That No One Knows

The Trade That No One Knows

Once upon a time, in a small Serbian village, there lived a poor man and woman and their only son. The parents worked from morning till night and dreamed that their son would grow up to be hardworking and intelligent.

The young man was clever indeed, but he had one weakness: sometimes he made up his mind before thinking things through.

One day he heard people talking about the king's daughter - an educated princess who loved riddles, books and unusual crafts.

"I want to meet her," the young man declared.

The mother almost dropped the basket of apples.

“You may get to know anyone who wishes to get to know you too. But you cannot simply go to the king and demand his daughter as though she were a sack of wheat.”

The young man blushed. He realized that he had said something foolish.

"Then I will go to the palace myself and ask only for permission to talk to her."

The king listened to him without anger.

“The decision is not mine,” he said. “Ask the princess.”

The princess entered the hall and studied the young man closely.

“You say that you are ready to go to the ends of the earth to meet me?”

“I am ready.”

“Then do not bring me gold and do not defeat anyone in battle. Learn a craft that no one knows. And when you return, show me what it taught you.”

The young man was confused.

“A craft that no one knows? Who will teach me then?”

The princess smiled.

“That is the first riddle.”

The next morning he set out.

He went from village to village, asking blacksmiths, potters, carpenters, musicians and shepherds. Everyone knew their craft, but everyone laughed:

“If nobody knows it, how could we?”

After many days, the young man sat down on a fallen tree in the forest and sighed heavily.

An old woman traveling through the forest passed by.

“Why are you sad?”

“I am looking for someone to teach me a craft that nobody knows.”

The old woman narrowed her eyes.

“Go straight through this forest, and you will find a castle. Four giants live there. They know more than they say. But listen carefully, and do not mistake recklessness for courage.”

The young man thanked her and went on.

The castle stood among the pine trees. Four giants met him at the gate.

“Do you want to learn an unknown craft?” boomed the first giant.

“I do.”

“Then stay here for three days. Each day, there will be one room you are forbidden to enter. If you go in, you must pass a test. If you stay out, you will learn nothing. The choice is yours.”

“What a way to learn!” the young man thought.

The next morning the giants went to the forest and said:

“Do not enter the first room.”

Of course, the young man looked at the door for a long time. Then he remembered the words of the traveler: listen carefully.

“They did not say the room was dangerous. They said there would be a test.”

He went in.

In the room stood a golden donkey near a golden manger.

“If you are not afraid to learn,” said the donkey, “take my bridle. It can summon things that help you travel. But remember: it answers your purpose, not your greed.”

The young man took the bridle.

When the giants returned, the first one asked:

“Did you go in?”

The young man wanted to lie, but changed his mind.

“I did.”

“Then you have passed the first test,” said the giant. “You did not hide the truth.”

The next day, they told him not to enter the second room.

There the young man saw a girl in a golden dress. She gave him a small key.

“It does not open doors. It lets whoever holds it change their shape. But every transformation must end with you becoming yourself again.”

In the evening the giants asked again:

“Did you go in?”

“Yes.”

“Good. The second lesson is never to be ashamed of learning.”

On the third day, there was nothing frightening behind the door. Mirrors hung in the room. In each, the young man saw himself in a different form: a horse, a falcon, a hare, a fish, and even a tiny seed.

A small iron chain lay in the middle of the room.

“Take it,” said a voice from the mirrors. “It helps you link one transformation to another. But remember what matters most: true skill is not becoming anything you please. It is changing without losing yourself.”

When the giants returned, they said:

“You have learned a craft that nobody knows, because it is different every time. One person sees magic in it, another sees keen observation, and a third sees the ability to change. Now go and decide what sort of person it will make you.”

The young man returned home.

His parents were so happy that they held him in their arms for a long time.

“Show me what you have learned,” his father asked.

The young man touched the key and became a beautiful horse, then changed back into himself. He struck the ground with the bridle, and a swift bay horse appeared beside him. He touched the grass with the chain, and a hare raced across it, followed by a cheerful greyhound. A moment later, all the magical images melted away.

“You could fool half the world with this!” his father exclaimed.

The young man thought for a moment.

“Or I could earn an honest living.”

They put on a wonderful show at the fair. The young man changed into a falcon, a fish in a clear tub, a white horse, and back into himself. People paid a few coins to watch, and the children begged to see the transformations again.

Word of the show reached the palace.

The king and princess invited the young man to perform in the courtyard. The princess watched carefully.

“You really have found an unusual craft,” she said. “But I want to see more than clever tricks. What will you do if you meet someone whose magic is stronger than yours?”

As though summoned by her words, the same old traveler who had shown him the way to the giants appeared at the gate.

“At last,” she said. “I have been waiting for you to learn. I do not like rivals.”

She touched the ground and became a hawk.

The young man turned into a dove.

The hawk rushed after him. The dove became a hare. The hawk turned into a greyhound. The hare turned into a fish in the palace pond. The greyhound turned into an otter. The fish jumped out of the water as a falcon. The otter became an eagle.

A marvelous contest of magic whirled above the garden.

Finally, the young man turned into a bouquet of flowers and fell right into the hands of the princess.

The old woman became human again.

“Give me at least one flower!”

The princess shook her head.

“The flowers came to me of their own accord. I will not give them to someone who demands them.”

Then the bouquet crumbled into hundreds of millet grains. The old woman became a hen and rushed to peck them.

The young man had no wish to hurt her. He became a fox, ran in a circle around the grains, and gave a loud bark to frighten her away.

The hen jumped back. The spell scattered like dry leaves, and the old woman returned to her own shape.

“You could have defeated me by force,” she said, breathing heavily.

“Why?” the young man answered. “I only had to stop you.”

The old woman looked at him for a long time, and then smiled.

“Then the giants have taught you more than they once taught me. I learned to change my shape, but never learned to change myself.”

She turned and left the palace. They say that after that she no longer pursued students, but began to teach those who came to her voluntarily.

The princess approached the young man.

“Now I see what this craft has taught you, beyond magic.”

“What has it taught me?”

“You are less hasty. Before, you wanted an answer at once. Now you can think, tell the truth, and end a quarrel without taking revenge.”

The young man laughed.

“Then becoming a horse or a falcon was not the hardest change of all.”

“Exactly.”

They did not marry at once. First, they spent a long time talking, walking through the town, meeting each other’s families, and debating books and travel. Only when they both knew they wanted to be together did they choose to share their lives.

The young man continued practicing his unusual craft. He never used it to cheat anyone or take what belonged to someone else.

And when he was asked:

“What is your art called?”

He answered:

“It is a craft that nobody ever knows completely. Its hardest lesson is learning, day by day, to become a little better than you were before.”

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨