Three Pieces of Wisdom

There was once a young duke who was very unlucky indeed. No matter what he did, or how many ways he tried to become rich, he was always on the brink of poverty. He’d got some money from a distant uncle and bought a mansion. It was struck by lightning that night and left in ruins the next day. He’d dug for gold, and ended up with fool’s gold - which was pretty, but worthless.

He’d even tried his hand at farming, but the only plants that grew for him were dandelions and stinkweeds, which made him smell like bad garlic. He was hopeless!

One day, this unfortunate fellow went to the wise king to get some advice on how to improve his life. The king wanted to help and thought about it very hard, but he couldn’t come up with a solution that worked. He had to send the young man home.

The king’s daughter had been eavesdropping, however. She was quite nosy that way. She thought the young duke was quite handsome and that, with a little work and her cleverness, she could help him turn his luck around. And so she hurried after the young man as he was leaving.

“If you marry me, you know, you’ll be very rich,” she said, trying to catch her breath. He’d been walking quite fast. “It’s an answer to all of your problems.”

The princess was very pretty, so the duke didn’t hesitate for a moment. Soon after, there was a huge wedding and the newlyweds were given a large dowry to start out their new lives. Finally, the young man was rich!

He should have been happy, but he still wasn’t entirely satisfied and started thinking about how to become even wealthier. He wanted money, money, money! He decided…