Read the fairy tale of Ali the Woodcutter and the Giants

Once upon a time, there was and there was not. One of them was Ali the Woodcutter. Ali and his wife lived in a small house right next to the forest. Every day, Ali would tie the provisions prepared by his wife to his waist and head off to the forest to chop wood.

Ali once again tied the provisions—three eggs and a few pieces of *yufka* (thin flatbread)—to his waist and went to the forest. After working for a while, he got hungry and took a break to eat. Just then, he heard some sounds around him. To figure out where the sounds were coming from, he climbed to the top of a tree. And what did he see? Several giants were heading straight towards him! Ali began to tremble fiercely on the tree, and naturally, the branches of the tree started to shake too.

The giants immediately noticed Ali from the sounds of the shaking tree and brought him down. They asked Ali what he was doing there. He told the giants that he cut wood there every day. The giants decided to have some fun with this woodcutter. One of them said:

"Look, Woodcutter, I will now squeeze this huge rock and turn it into pieces. If you can't do what I do, you won't escape from us."

The giant did as he said. Ali the Woodcutter began to think. He said to the giants: "I cannot measure up to you, but I can squeeze this and turn it into pieces."

The giants started laughing at the woodcutter's words. Meanwhile, our woodcutter quickly took a small white stone from the ground and instantly swapped it with an egg from his provisions. Pretending to squeeze the stone, he squeezed the egg, shattering it into pieces.

The giants were amazed and asked the woodcutter to repeat the act. He took out the other egg and crushed it into pieces as well. Following this, the giants wanted to introduce him to their Sultan and invited him to the palace. Ali, out of fear, went to the palace with the giants.

Ali squeezed the egg, pretending to squeeze the stone, right in front of the Sultan as well. The Sultan was extremely surprised. He immediately grabbed a large cypress tree by its top and threw it down in front of the woodcutter. Then he said to the woodcutter: "You do that, and let us see."

The woodcutter asked the giants for a long rope. When he claimed that with this rope, he could tie up the entire forest and knock down all the trees at once, the giants exclaimed:

"What will we do without the forest?" and told the woodcutter that they were giving up on their demand.

The giants could not accept that someone stronger than them was in their forest. Therefore, they planned to get rid of the woodcutter that night. They wanted to host the woodcutter for one more night. Suspicious of the giants, Ali stayed awake. When he heard noises in the night, he immediately sprang out of bed. He lined up the logs that were standing near the bed and covered them nicely.

At night, the giants came and beat the bed fiercely with a club. They saw that there was no sound! They rejoiced, thinking they had gotten rid of Ali.

In the morning, the giants were astonished when they ran into the woodcutter. They were also curious how Ali had escaped. They asked him: "How was your night?"

Ali replied: "A bed bug came and bothered me for a while, but after that, I slept soundly."

The giants were amazed. They wanted to host the woodcutter for one more night. That night, the woodcutter again stayed awake. In the middle of the night, the giants came and poured water over the woodcutter. Since Ali suspected something was wrong, as soon as evening came, he filled a sack with stones and put it under his bed. He wanted the giants to think he was under the bed.

The next morning, the giants were again surprised to see the woodcutter. They asked him: "How was your night?"

Ali replied: "I sweated so much during the night that I soaked my whole bed with sweat."

The giants became very afraid of Ali the Woodcutter. They asked him if he had any wish. The woodcutter asked them for a sack of gold. To get rid of the woodcutter, the giants immediately brought the gold and gave it to him.

The woodcutter took the gold and returned home. He told his wife what had happened. His wife said to the woodcutter: "Intelligence is a person's greatest asset (capital)."

She was very happy that her husband had used his wits to escape from the difficult situations he found himself in. They lived happily and in prosperity for the rest of their lives. They attained their desires, and may we climb onto the marriage couch. Three apples fell from the sky: one for the teller of the tale, one for the listener, and one for those who can use their mind in difficult situations.