In a faraway land, there was a big mill. An old miller lived there with his three sons. They had to live a humble life as times weren’t easy for them. From dawn till dusk, the four of them had to work hard at the mill to make enough money to live. The miller made flour from grain, and his sons helped him. Every day, they would load bags of flour onto a horse drawn cart and take it to sell to the village and to the nearby castle.
One day, the miller fell ill. He called up his sons because he sensed his end was coming.
“Sons of mine, my time has almost come. Soon, you will have to take care of the mill by yourselves. There isn’t much I can leave you in this world, but I trust that you will share everything fairly,” the miller told his sons.
Sadly, his premonition came true within a few days, and so the sons began dividing what their father left them. The eldest kept his father’s mill, the middle one took the cart and the horse, and so the youngest had to be content with just a grey cat who always roamed around the mill.
While the elder brothers could now earn a piece of bread or two with the things they had inherited, the youngest worried he would die of hunger. What would he do with only the cat? And what’s more, his brothers not wanting him at the mill, they soon sent him away.
“Dear brother, sorry, but you have to find another place to live. We need neither you, nor your cat at the mill. But please don’t think we are being mean to you. Here, take these two coins for the road,” said the eldest one…