One of these days, there was a merchant named Joban in a brave kingdom. He was a rich merchant in the village, and he lived near the palace. He had three grown daughters: the oldest was Alina, the second was Grace, and the third was Maria. He loved all of them. One day, the king called him to the palace and said to him, “We have concluded a commercial pact with a great neighboring kingdom. We need to negotiate a trust to learn the conditions of the neighbor with trust and security, and we need from you to do this for us.”
Joban listened to the king’s words and he couldn’t think. For he was worried about his daughters because he had never left them before. He said to the king, “Why are you silent? Say to me an answer, for I have made an order: when I go out, I will leave my daughters and let them die in the palace only.” The king said to him, “Don’t worry about your daughters, for we will go on the right of your daughters that they are safe.”
Joban didn’t want to leave his daughters, but he couldn’t refuse the king’s request. He went to his home to bid his daughters farewell and found three chests in the house. He opened each girl and took a piece from each of them, one by one. Then he said to them, “I will travel to do a work, and don’t let anyone enter here, and if something happens, I will learn from that voice.”
He went and left his daughters, and the next day the king came with two of his friends. When they saw Maria, she told her older sister. Grace said to her, “Maria, I will go to the kitchen to see food.” When the king heard that, he said, “I don’t want anything,” and she didn’t answer her older sister because she had known. Maria left and ran toward the house of the giants.
He said to her, “I have learned with your sister. Where can I sleep at you?” So Maria stayed at the house of their guest and felt the king was sad for Maria’s leaving. And when she left in the morning, she found her older sister and they had already woken up waiting for her husband. She went to her sister’s room and found her at the window looking at the garden of the palace. Her sister said to her, “Look how the weather is beautiful. Get me one.” So Maria said to her, “What is the matter? You are playing as a child.”
So Maria climbed from the window and went to the garden, and she picked a basket and went. She said, “Maria.” Her sister said, “There is a lemon tree also.” So Maria went to the garden, and this time she found bananas during her walking. She ran after her to grab her, so Maria threw the banana. She fell and couldn’t stand up quickly, so Maria ran, arrived at the house, and gave her sister the basket and the lemons and scolded her. She said to her, “Don’t ask from me a second thing like this,” and she left and Maria didn’t hear what she said.
And the next day, her older sister wanted some wheat and asked Maria to bring it to her, but she didn’t answer the older sister’s desire the second time after she talked about the previous day, but in front of her insistence, her sister knew, and this time the king was walking in the garden. He saw Maria and said to her, “What are you whispering?” So Maria asked him some questions and answered him with the truth. The king said to her, “In front of these words, you will live in my house.” The king went to her house and took Maria.
And the king remained looking behind her to confirm her existence, but he suddenly turned and found her had disappeared without any trace for her. They searched for her in the garden all over and didn’t find her. And the king remained sad until he became very sick and died of depression.
Her condition didn’t improve at all, and during that, her older sister married the king’s commander, and they also had children again. One day, Maria went to her older sister’s house and took her doll and fled. She put the children in a beautiful place of flowers so no one would see them. Then she thanked her father and placed the basket on her head and went to the palace to beg for some flowers for the king. The king was sitting in a grief, and when he heard her voice, he got up and called his guard.
He said to him, “Listen to the voice from the caller, and see the object of the basket of flowers and give them to the king to open for the children.” And when he saw the children, he filled with love and realized that he would marry from Maria after he remembered her love for him before. And the merchant said to him, “My son, the merchant I sent to do the mission for you, tell him to bring me a boy from the mountains of trees, and if he doesn’t come, I will kill him.” And when the merchant came to his house, he felt the intense grief, for he missed his daughters and nothing happened to them. Then he found her daughter had married from him without his permission. And the guard came and told him what the king wanted, and the merchant was amazed at the changing of the circumstances, and no one knew the way of Maria and he feared the order of the boy, so what was possible was to make a boy in one day.
Maria said to her father, “Don’t worry with me, take this doll with you and ask the king for the sake of the boy.” She took the doll and went to the palace, and she said to the king, “Where is the boy?” He said to her, “I didn’t make him.” She said to her, “Get ready for death.” He said to her, “No, my son.” He said to her, “If you want to come upon me, you must learn your daughter.” And the merchant went to his house without saying anything and felt the grief when he thought that he had to teach his daughter.
He said to his daughter about what had happened. She said, “Don’t worry, go down a doll completely like me and a scarf sewn around her on her head, to find him I will come yes or no.” And the next day, the king came to the palace with the doll of Maria, and the king ordered to send Maria to capture him. So the guard took her and Maria disappeared between her knees, and as soon as the doors closed, the doll came out and started moving under the bed while she was wiping with the scarf. The king said to her, “Are you angry?”
Maria moved the head of the doll to come and the king remained talking to her and preparing for her all her clothes, and she answered with yes. Therefore, he decreed upon her the death, so he brought his head out and cut off her head. And as she fell on the ground, she felt a person kicking at her feet. He said, “This love has made me bow to you and didn’t leave me alive for a moment and before he brought out his head, Maria came out from under her bed. Then they married and lived happily ever after, and they were safe.