One day, one of the cold winter days, Juha was sitting in the king’s palace. The king said to Juha, teasing him: Can you Juha sit outside the palace in the open air, on one of the cold winter nights, with your chest bare?
Juha answered him with utmost courage and challenge that he could do that, and increased in the challenge, leaving it also to the king to choose the night he wanted Juha to spend in the open air. The king was amazed and said to Juha: If you do that Juha, you will have a great reward, and I will give you a thousand gold dinars in return.
The Challenge: The king chose one of the severely cold winter nights. The king ordered his guards to go up with Juha to the top of the mountain, strip him of clothes, and remain near him all night, watching him so he wouldn’t light a fire to warm himself.
Indeed, the guards put on their heavy winter clothes that protect them from bitter cold, went up with Juha to the top of the mountain, stripped him of his clothes, and sat a little away from him, watching him as the king ordered.
Juha spent his night awake from severe cold to the point that blood almost froze in his veins. The next day, the guards took Juha from the top of the mountain peak and brought him down to the king’s palace. Juha was completely sound and unharmed, which amazed the king. Juha kept telling of his night he spent above the mountain peak and the horrors he experienced alone in bitter cold.
Deceiving the King: Here, the king asked him: Did you see any burning fire anywhere while you were at the top of the mountain? Juha answered him: Yes, I saw a weak light of a lamp flashing from very far, from the window of one of the village houses on the mountain slope.
Here, the king replied to him: That means you warmed yourself with the light of that lamp and lost my gift to you. Here, Juha’s anger intensified, and he resorted to silence. Then he began thinking of tricks to retrieve the reward that this deceitful king had promised him.
Juha’s Intelligence: After weeks passed, Juha went to the king’s palace, invited him and his entourage to lunch at his place, and that he would prepare for them a very delicious table in the meadows among flowers and trees. Indeed, the king and his entourage responded to Juha’s request.
They went to his house, and Juha had indeed specified for them a distinguished place among the lush trees. He began throwing jokes and funny pranks on them until the lunch time passed. The king felt hunger.
Juha would leave those sitting from time to time and disappear for a period, then return. When the king’s hunger intensified, he asked Juha: Where is the food? Our hunger has intensified, Juha. Juha answered him that the food hadn’t cooked yet, and that wasn’t his fault but rather the fire’s fault.
The king stood from his seat and said to his entourage: Let’s go to see what Juha is preparing for us of food. Indeed, they all went to see what Juha had prepared of food for them. They saw that Juha had placed several pots with food and hung them at the top of a tree, and lit the fire on the ground so that the fire wouldn’t reach the pots, but only the smoke of the fire would rise to the pots.
Here, the king got angry and said: What is this Juha, are you mocking us? Juha answered him that on that night he spent at the top of the mountain, he saw a weak light of a lamp shining from very far, from one of the windows of the village houses, so you judged me at that time, my master, that I warmed myself with it. How did the food not cook while there were only a few simple meters between it and the fire?
Here, the king laughed at Juha’s intelligence, and his anger vanished. Then he ordered to give him the reward he had promised him, which was a thousand gold dinars.