A folk tale about wisdom and modesty from Pavol Dobšinský’s collection.
The king meets a simple farmer who has been working hard every day for many years, and only gets paid three coins at the end of the day. When he explains how he can manage with so little money, the king is more than surprised.
There was once a poor man who had very little to his name. He made his living by digging ditches. One day, when he was digging on one side of the king’s road, the actual king himself passed by!
The king stopped to watch the man work for a while and he thought, “My goodness, this must be such tiring work, digging in this rocky, hard ground! This man has to be very rich, because there’s no point in doing this for only a few measly coins, is there?”
After watching for a few more minutes, the king asked the digger: “Excuse me, how much money do you get paid for your work?”
“I make three coins a day, sir,” the poor man said, bowing low. The king was shocked. He couldn’t believe his ears and his eyes were wide with surprise.
“How can you possibly live on just three coins?” he asked. He really couldn’t imagine anyone able to live on so little. “Oh, I don’t live on three coins,” replied the poor man.
“If I had three whole coins, my life would be much easier! But I have to return one, lend another and live on the third,” the man explained.
The king was so confused that his head started aching. He still couldn’t see how it was possible for the man to live, so he said, “I don’t understand what you mean by that. I can’t seem to get my head around how you survive.”
“It’s very simple, sir,” the man said. “I take care of my father, who raised me, and I give one coin back to him because when he was bringing me up, he took care of me and gave me money. I also have a son, so I lend…
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