Jamila was a young girl living in a small village with her grandmother. She had two cows and was accustomed to milking her two cows daily, carrying the milk container on her head to the city to sell it, then returning to her home in the evening. The girl took care of the two cows—she would feed them and clean them. The grandmother loved Jamila, and Jamila was always dreaming of becoming richer.
Her daydreams caused her problems, as she would become absent-minded and let the cows escape. Her grandmother told her: You must work, for dreams won’t make you rich, but they will cost you much. But Jamila didn’t listen to her grandmother’s words and didn’t stop dreaming. One day, her grandmother called her to the kitchen before she went to sell the milk.
Her grandmother said to her: You don’t need to go to the market today. She asked her: Why, grandmother? The grandmother said: There’s a wedding in the neighboring village tomorrow. The Al-Sintanch family will celebrate their daughter’s wedding, and important people from neighboring villages will come. Al-Sintanch requested from their chef to prepare all kinds of delicious sweets, and she asked me to send her a large container of fresh milk to use, and she promised to pay us double the price of a full day in the market.
The girl said: I will go to the celebration, and everyone will be sure that the sweets are from our milk, and everyone will be pleased with the sweets. The grandmother said: Don’t build castles in the air. She gave her the milk and said to her: Make sure you don’t drop a single drop on the ground, for we have no other today, and you must never stop, as I agreed with Al-Sintanch—if the milk doesn’t arrive on time, they won’t pay double and we won’t attend the celebration either.
The road was full of gravel, and Jamila loved the smell of flowers and berries but hated walking. Jamila walked along humming her favorite song and said: The container is very heavy. She said: It doesn’t matter, I will rest like the rich people and buy a cart. Jamila walked long and approached the village, talking to herself and saying: Little rain and I become rich, but what will I spend the money on? She kept thinking about what to spend the money on throughout the way.
She kept thinking that with the money she would buy chickens, and the chickens would lay eggs, and the eggs would hatch into small chickens, increasing the number of chickens. She would buy a cart and put the chickens, eggs, and milk in it, and sell them in the market, and become a very rich lady. While she was dreaming, the milk container fell from her head and completely broke, and the milk spilled on the ground. The girl sat crying, for all her dreams had vanished. I won’t go to the village, I have no milk, and I won’t go to the celebration either. The girl began to hear only one voice—her grandmother’s voice saying: Don’t build a castle in the air.
Translated from the story: Milkmaid’s Dream Story