The Center for Central Asian Literatures in Translation

A beggar once passed the night in the house of a rich man.  This man treated the beggar very badly and, as he left, the beggar said to him,

"Your behavior has been very bad and for that reason you will die.  I've been considering this, and you're going to die being tossed on a cow's horns."

"This is all very well," said the master of the house angrily.  "Don't tell me that I'm going to be tossed on a cow's horns."  And he asked, "Tell me exactly, then, on which day of which month this will happen."

The rich man took no notice, but as the time indicated by the beggar approached, he became frightened.  So he went into a large town, and climbed to the top of a tall building.  He was thinking to himself, Now in this large town, how is a cow going to come to the top of a tall building?  Now I know that this wicked beggar was lying to me.  And while he was poking his ear with a spatula, the wind suddenly picked up and blew a sheet of paper, he started and perforated his ear drum and he died.  The spatula, which he used to measure out snuff, had been made from the horn of a cow.