Aldar Kose’s Magic Coat

You may have heard of the scoundrel, Aldar Kose. Well, let me tell you a story about him,
and how he tricked a man.

Once, there was a very cold winter. It was colder than any winter before. If you had a fox fur
coat, you would be OK, but they were expensive. Aldar Kose did not have a fox fur coat. He
only had an old, cheap coat, and it was full of holes.

One day, Aldar was riding through a field. He was wearing his cheap coat full of holes, and
he was very cold. His hands and feet hurt, and his nose was blue. He shivered and shivered.
He wanted to find a yurt. In the yurt it would be warm and comfortable. But the wind was
blowing loud and strong, and he only saw grass and ice. He saw no yurts and no fires. And
the wind was trying to blow his ears off!

‘Come on, little horse,’ he said, and spurred his horse on.

But the horse did not go any faster. It was old and thin, and it was also shivering.

‘When the horse is bad, the road is long,’ he said to himself.

He would have to ride for a long time, and there would be no yurts or fires. What would
happen to him? Would he die?

Then, Aldar Kose saw someone far away. It was another man riding a horse. His horse was
strong and swift, and Aldar knew it was a rich man.

The scoundrel had an idea. Rich men were often easy to trick. So Aldar Kose opened his coat
and stopped shivering, and he sang to himself.

When the rich man rode to him, they stopped and said hello to each other. The rich man
was wearing a fox fur coat, but he was still shivering. Aldar Kose, however, had taken off his
hat and was fanning himself. He looked like he was sitting under the summer sun, not in a
cold field with a cheap coat.

‘How are you not cold?’ asked the rich man. ‘You sit there fanning yourself like it is
summer.’

‘You may be cold under your fox fur coat,’ said Aldar, ‘but I am very warm under my coat.’

‘What? How can you be warm in such a coat?’

Aldar opened his mouth wide. ‘You really can’t see it?’

‘What I can see is that your coat is full of holes!’ said the rich man. ‘There is no fur left! How
is that warm?’
‘Ah, but that is what makes it so good!’ said the scoundrel. ‘The wind blows in through one
hole, and—whoosh!—it blows out through another. And I stay very warm!’

The rich man could not believe it. ‘I must have that magic coat for myself,’ he thought.

But Aldar Kose thought, ‘I must have that rich man’s fox fur coat for myself!’

The rich man said loudly, ‘Sell your coat to me!’

‘No!’ said Aldar Kose. ‘Without my coat, I’ll be so cold!’

‘No you won’t!’ said the rich man. ‘Take my coat. It is warm enough.’

‘Pah!’ said the scoundrel. ‘Your coat for my coat? My coat is much better.’

He turned away with his horse, but the rich man stopped him.

‘Wait! I’ll give you money as well.’

‘I don’t need money,’ said Aldar Kose. ‘But if you give me your horse, I might think about it.’

‘Yes, yes, of course!’

The rich man was very happy. He took off his fox fur coat and jumped off his horse. Aldar
Kose put on the fur coat, jumped on the swift horse, spurred it on and rode away.

Now the scoundrel had a good horse and a warm fur coat. He spurred his horse from town
to town with his new prizes. In every town, the people came out of their yurts and said,
‘Look, it’s Aldar Kose! Where did you get that wonderful fur coat and swift horse?’

‘I got them by giving a rich man my magic fur coat. It had 70 holes in it!’

And so Aldar Kose told them the story about the rich man and his coat full of holes. He
showed them how he had fanned himself and tricked the man. The people laughed and
laughed, and they thanked Aldar Kose by giving him yoghurt to drink and fresh bread to eat.

When the laughing finished, Aldar Kose said, ‘You only know if the road is long or short after
you have finished it. And you only know if food is good or bad after you have eaten it.’