Once there was a poor weaver, and there are many of them even now. But this one was born under a lucky star, for one day three rich students came by his house, saw the great poverty he lived in, and gave him a hundred dollars to help him in his business.
The poor man looked for a long time at the coins before he touched them. He could not make up his mind what to do with them, so he hid the money in a bindle of rags, where nobody would look for it. His wife was not at home at the time.
Some time later a rag-dealer came to his house while the weaver was away, and bought from his wife the bundle of rags that the weaver had hid the money in. The weaver lamented a lot when he came home and his wife showed him the good bargain she thought she had made of the rags.
A year later the three students came again. They hoped to find the weaver well off, but he was poorer than ever and told them how he had lost the money. A second time they gave him a hundred dollars, telling him to be more careful.
This time he put the money into the ash-pit without letting his wife into the secret. But while he was away one day, his wife sold the ashes to a man who came round for them, and in return got two pieces of soap. She flattered herself she had this time acted wisely, for her husband who had cautioned her never to sell any more linen to pedlars, had said nothing about anything else.
But when the husband came home and heard of the bargain, he flew into a violent rage.
When a year had passed the students came again. When they found the weaver still in rags, they said to him while they threw a piece of lead at his feet, "What use is nutmeg to a cow! We will never come back here again!"
They went away in a rage. The weaver picked up the lead they had left and laid it on the window-sill. Soon afterwards his neighbour, a fisherman, came in and asked if he had by him a piece of lead or something else that was as heavy, so that he could sink his nets with it.
The weaver gave him the piece of lead from the windowsill. The fisherman thanked him and went away, promising to bring him the first fish he could catch in exchange for the lead.
Soon afterwards the fisherman brought in a fine fish and forced the weaver to accept it. It weighed four or five pounds. But when the weaver cut up the fish, he found a great stone in it. He placed the stone on the spot where the lead had been. Then, when it grew dark, he was surprised to see that the stone glittered and shone like a lamp. "
This is a valuable stone," said he to his wife. "See to it that you do not throw it away as you did my two hundred dollars."
The next evening a nobleman rode past the cottage and saw the glittering stone on the window-sill. He went into the house and offered ten dollars for it.
"The stone is not for sale," said the weaver.
"Not for twenty dollars even?" asked the nobleman.
"Even so," said the weaver.
But the nobleman kept on bidding for it till he had offered a thousand dollars, for the stone was a costly diamond and really worth two times as much.
The weaver accepted the offer and thereby became as rich as any in the village. But his wife would have her last word and said, "All this wealth comes from my giving away the two hundred dollars, so you should thank me a lot, after all!"
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