Peter the Great and the Blacksmith

Here Peter the Great arrives at the blacksmith's on horseback. "Shoe my horse!" he says. "Just make a good horseshoe!" The blacksmith set to making a horseshoe. He made a horseshoe and hands it to him: "Well, will this horseshoe be good?" Peter the Great smirked: "Good, but not quite!" "Why not quite?" "It is," he says, "weak!" "Well, I don't know why it's weak..." He takes it in his hands and bends it straight. The blacksmith sees: "Yes, indeed weak." He sets about making a second. "Well, will this one be good?" Peter says: "So-so!" And he bent this one straight too. The blacksmith sets about making a third. And the third is ready. "Well, this one, I suppose, will do for shoeing," said the Tsar. The blacksmith made four horseshoes and shod the horse. Peter the Great asks: "How much do I owe you for the horseshoes?" "Four rubles." He hands him a silver ruble. The blacksmith took it and broke it: "Your money is counterfeit!" Peter hands him a second ruble. And the blacksmith broke the second one too. "Come on," he says, "give me good money!" Peter the Great takes out twenty-five rubles and hands them to him: "Here, don't break the money; when the scythe meets the stone! I broke horseshoes, and you rubles... Looks like you're stronger than me! Do you know who I am?" "No, I don't know." "I am Peter the Great, your sovereign. So there, work as you worked, and tell people that the sovereign broke horseshoes, and you—his rubles!" Peter the Great mounted his horse and said: "Goodbye, blacksmith, you're a fine fellow!" And after that the blacksmith never saw him again.