King Matthias and the neighbor who distributed the rooster

Many people came to the king Matthias with all sorts of applications. One man wanted to get a reward. He had a beautiful rooster, he presented that to the king in the hope that he will get a reward. King Matthias even accepted it with a condition that the person will also be present at the lunch when they eat the rooster and it will be his duty to divide rooster amongst the people so that everyone gets the right share he is entitled to get, and if he will not do it then he will be punished instead of being rewarded.

The man became terribly frightened and he raked his brains and moaned how could he divide the rooster. He narrated his dilemma to his neighbor. His neighbor told him that he will be able to divide it and he would go to the king’s court instead of the person. The man agreed to this as he already had headache after raking his brains.

The neighbor went to the King’s court, they roasted the rooster for the lunch and were sitting at the table. There were the king, queen, two sons, two daughters and the neighbor. When they brought the roasted rooster the neighbor said a humorous thing and started to divide :
He cut the head and gave it to the king because:
- The head suits the head of the house- said the man.

He cut the neck and gave it to the queen because:
- The neck suits the woman of the house , the neck is closest to the head of the rooster, like the queen is to the king.

Then he cut the two wings and gave them away to the sons so that they can write well. He cut the two feet and gave them to the daughters so that they can become good dancers. When he had distributed he said:
- Now everyone has got the share which suits them, just I have not got.
He put in his plate whatever was left and ate it away.
King Matthias just saw how the man had given them the useless parts of the rooster and the best part of the rooster the man placed in front of him, he said:
- I did not know that you are so clever that you cheat us by giving us the useless parts.
The neighbor than said that he was not that person who sent the rooster, he was his neighbor. Then king Matthias gazed at him and he liked that witty man. He awarded the man what he had to give to the man who had sent the rooster.

Translated from Hungarian by me