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Grimms' Fairy Tales
The
Poor Man and the Rich Man
In olden times, when the Lord himself still
used to walk about on this earth amongst men, it once happened
that he was tired and overtaken by the darkness before he
could reach an inn. Now there stood on the road before him
two houses facing each other; the one large and beautiful,
the other small and poor. The large one belonged to a rich
man, and the small one to a poor man.
Then the Lord thought, "I shall be no burden to the
rich man, I will stay the night with him." When the
rich man heard some one knocking at his door, he opened
the window and asked the stranger what he wanted. The Lord
answered, "I only ask for a night's lodging."
Then the rich man looked at the traveler from head to foot,
and as the Lord was wearing common clothes, and did not
look like one who had much money in his pocket, he shook
his head, and said, "No, I cannot take you in, my rooms
are full of herbs and seeds; and if I were to lodge everyone
who knocked at my door, I might very soon go begging myself.
Go somewhere else for a lodging," and with this he
shut down the window and left the Lord standing there.
So the Lord turned his back on the rich man, and went across
to the small house and knocked. He had hardly done so when
the poor man opened the little door and bade the traveler
come in. "Pass the night with me, it is already dark,"
said he; "you cannot go any further to-night."
This pleased the Lord, and he went in. The poor man's wife
shook hands with him, and welcomed him, and said he was
to make himself at home and put up with what they had got;
they had not much to offer him, but what they had they would
give him with all their hearts. Then she put the potatoes
on the fire, and while they were boiling, she milked the
goat, that they might have a little milk with them. When
the cloth was laid, the Lord sat down with the man and his
wife, and he enjoyed their coarse food, for there were happy
faces at the table. When they had had supper and it was
bed-time, the woman called her husband apart and said, "Hark
you, dear husband, let us make up a bed of straw for ourselves
to-night, and then the poor traveler can sleep in our bed
and have a good rest, for he has been walking the whole
day through, and that makes one weary." "With
all my heart," he answered, "I will go and offer
it to him;" and he went to the stranger and invited
him, if he had no objection, to sleep in their bed and rest
his limbs properly. But the Lord was unwilling to take their
bed from the two old folks; however, they would not be satisfied,
until at length he did it and lay down in their bed, while
they themselves lay on some straw on the ground.
Next morning they got up before daybreak, and made as good
a breakfast as they could for the guest. When the sun shone
in through the little window, and the Lord had got up, he
again ate with them, and then prepared to set out on his
journey.
But as he was standing at the door he turned round and
said, "As you are so kind and good, you may wish three
things for yourselves and I will grant them." Then
the man said, "What else should I wish for but eternal
happiness, and that we two, as long as we live, may be healthy
and have every day our daily bread; for the third wish,
I do not know what to have." And the Lord said to him,
"Will you wish for a new house instead of this old
one?" "Oh, yes," said the man; "if I
can have that, too, I should like it very much." And
the Lord fulfilled his wish, and changed their old house
into a new one, again gave them his blessing, and went on.
The sun was high when the rich man got up and leaned out
of his window and saw, on the opposite side of the way,
a new clean-looking house with red tiles and bright windows
where the old hut used to be. He was very much astonished,
and called his wife and said to her, "Tell me, what
can have happened? Last night there was a miserable little
hut standing there, and to-day there is a beautiful new
house. Run over and see how that has come to pass."
So his wife went and asked the poor man, and he said to
her, "Yesterday evening a traveler came here and asked
for a night's lodging, and this morning when he took leave
of us he granted us three wishes -- eternal happiness, health
during this life and our daily bread as well, and besides
this, a beautiful new house instead of our old hut."
When the rich man's wife heard this, she ran back in haste
and told her husband how it had happened. The man said,
"I could tear myself to pieces! If I had but known
that! That traveler came to our house too, and wanted to
sleep here, and I sent him away." "Quick!"
said his wife, "get on your horse. You can still catch
the man up, and then you must ask to have three wishes granted
to you."
The rich man followed the good counsel and galloped away
on his horse, and soon came up with the Lord. He spoke to
him softly and pleasantly, and begged him not to take it
amiss that he had not let him in directly; he was looking
for the front-door key, and in the meantime the stranger
had gone away, if he returned the same way he must come
and stay with him. "Yes," said the Lord; "if
I ever come back again, I will do so." Then the rich
man asked if might not wish for three things too, as his
neighbor had done? "Yes," said the Lord, he might,
but it would not be to his advantage, and he had better
not wish for anything; but the rich man thought that he
could easily ask for something which would add to his happiness,
if he only knew that it would be granted. So the Lord said
to him, "Ride home, then, and three wishes which you
shall form, shall be fulfilled."
The rich man had now gained what he wanted, so he rode
home, and began to consider what he should wish for. As
he was thus thinking he let the bridle fall, and the horse
began to caper about, so that he was continually disturbed
in his meditations, and could not collect his thoughts at
all. He patted its neck, and said, "Gently, Lisa,"
but the horse only began new tricks. Then at last he was
angry, and cried quite impatiently, "I wish your neck
was broken!" Directly he had said the words, down the
horse fell on the ground, and there it lay dead and never
moved again. And thus was his first wish fulfilled. As he
was miserly by nature, he did not like to leave the harness
lying there; so he cut it off, and put it on his back; and
now he had to go on foot. "I have still two wishes
left," said he, and comforted himself with that thought.
And now as he was walking slowly through the sand, and
the sun was burning hot at noon-day, he grew quite hot-tempered
and angry. The saddle hurt his back, and he had not yet
any idea what to wish for. "If I were to wish for all
the riches and treasures in the world," said he to
himself, "I should still to think of all kinds of other
things later on, I know that, beforehand. But I will manage
so that there is nothing at all left me to wish for afterwards."
Then he sighed and said, "Ah, if I were but that Bavarian
peasant, who likewise had three wishes granted to him, and
knew quite well what to do, and in the first place wished
for a great deal of beer, and in the second for as much
beer as he was able to drink, and in the third for a barrel
of beer into the bargain."
Many a time he thought he had found it, but then it seemed
to him to be, after all, too little. Then it came into his
mind, what an easy life his wife had, for she stayed at
home in a cool room and enjoyed herself. This really did
vex him, and before he was aware, he said, "I just
wish she was sitting there on this saddle, and could not
get off it, instead of my having to drag it along on my
back." And as the last word was spoken, the saddle
disappeared from his back, and he saw that his second wish
had been fulfilled. Then he really did feel warm. He began
to run and wanted to be quite alone in his own room at home,
to think of something really large for his last wish. But
when he arrived there and opened the parlour-door, he saw
his wife sitting in the middle of the room on the saddle,
crying and complaining, and quite unable to get off it.
So he said, "Do bear it, and I will wish for all the
riches on earth for thee, only stay where thou art."
She, however, called him a fool, and said, "What good
will all the riches on earth do me, if I am to sit on this
saddle? Thou hast wished me on it, so thou must help me
off." So whether he would or not, he was forced to
let his third wish be that she should be quit of the saddle,
and able to get off it, and immediately the wish was fulfilled.
So he got nothing by it but vexation, trouble, abuse, and
the loss of his horse; but the poor people lived happily,
quietly, and piously until their happy death.
From Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household Tales, trans. Margaret
Hunt (London: George Bell, 1884), 2:1-5. |
