One day in a distant land, a beautiful princess lived in a large palace. She had many servants, but she wasn’t happy. The evil wizard loved her and wanted to control her. He thought in the form of a huge cat and followed her everywhere. The wizard could only be ended by a prince stomping on the huge cat’s tail while he was sleeping.
This is what happened that night. The huge cat fell into sleep, and the prince stomped on his tail and suddenly turned into the wizard. He said to him: How dare you do that? He said to him: I have to because the wizard will torment her, but who will torment you, I will curse your firstborn son, and he will be born with a huge nose, but he will become a king. Then no one will rule over you except a prince without a nose.
The princess became the happiest woman in the world, and the whole kingdom rejoiced with the disappearance of the evil wizard. The princess married the prince, years passed, and the princess became a queen and gave birth to her firstborn son during the king’s absence. But the happiness didn’t continue. The queen died, and the kingdom grieved for another sad queen, for the queen’s ship sank, and the prince became the sole heir, but there was something strange in him. A huge nose covered his whole face. The minister and servants decided to hide the prince’s huge nose as much as possible. They removed all pictures of men with big noses from the palace and warned all servants not to mention anything about his big nose. In school, the teachers were teaching history and remembering only heroes with small noses, and they praised those who possessed a small nose. Thus the minister and all their effort—they even asked men to wear artificial noses when entering the palace.
The prince grew up proud of his huge nose, and the day came when the minister asked him to marry so he could inherit the throne actually. The prince said he would marry from the daughter of a neighboring king because she was the most beautiful. The minister and the queen mother decided to lie about the prince’s huge nose and conceal it from the king of the neighboring kingdom. So he agreed to the marriage, but before the prince arrived, the princess went out with her father, and while they were among the guards, a camel with a strange shape came from behind them. When he woke up, he found himself in a strange land. He walked and walked but found no one.
He found a small house and went to its owner. He said to her that he was lost. If she would give him some food and clothes. The lady said: Of course. She said to him: Here is your food. Wow, your nose is extremely huge. Cover me, for I haven’t seen its like on any person. The prince was shocked, for he was used to everyone flattering him, and he seemed extremely arrogant. So he was astonished. Her daughter said to him after she left her house: I am the daughter of the queen. I have been in this land for years. I came during a journey as a child, and with me were treasures. Many men I used to feed—I would tell them the story of the cat.
Do you want to hear the story of the cat? She told him the story of the cat—that it was the evil wizard. The prince couldn’t bear the matter after he was full while she was telling him about his huge nose. He said to her: Stop mentioning my nose. You have a defect here—your nose is small and ugly. She said to him: I think you have never looked in the mirror. The prince left and walked on his way. Some people were laughing at his nose, and doubt began to creep into the prince’s mind. Everyone had small, different noses than his. He arrived at the palace and called out to the princess. She said to him: Welcome, but what is this, your nose? The prince left the palace, and the queen and her stepdaughter were about to accept her, but he didn’t touch their hands. He said: How do I not realize this, that my nose is huge in fact. It has ashamed everyone that it is ugly, but I have a defect and will live with it.
Suddenly the lady appeared and said to him: You are not a queen, oh prince. You became arrogant because of your nose. The wizard cursed you, and you must accept your defect until you become a king. Now your curse has ended. The prince said: Ah, I don’t have a defect. She said: No, young man. We are all imperfect, and nothing ends our defect. Loving oneself is very important, but we also need to realize our imperfection too. We become truly without defects when we realize our imperfection, just like you found your princess and ended the curse by knowing your defect. So if we know our defect, we become truly without defects.