There was once a man who was such a boaster that scarcely a word he said was true. One day he was talking with some companions and he said, “I have no need to work or worry over anything. I could be richer than the King himself if I chose, for I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold.”
A nobleman who was passing by overheard this, and he went to the King and repeated to him what the man had said.
Now the King of that country was very fond of gold; he never could have enough of it. He at once sent to the boaster’s house and had him and his daughter brought to the palace. They were brought to where the King sat, and the King said, “I hear that you have boasted that your daughter can spin straw into gold. Is that true?”
The man was very much frightened when he heard this, but he was afraid to deny what he had already said.
“Yes, your majesty, that is what I said,” he answered.
“Very well,” said the King. “We shall soon know whether you have spoken the truth or not. I have had a large room made ready for your daughter. It is filled with straw. I will have her taken to it, and if she spins it into gold you shall be well rewarded, but if she fails you shall both be punished severely.”
Both the father and daughter were terrified at these words. They did not know what would become of them. The boaster was allowed to go home, but the girl was taken to a large room filled with straw, and was left there. She sat and cried and cried.
Presently the door opened and a crooked little brown dwarf came into the room.
“Tut, tut, what a noise,” said he. “Why are you crying so bitterly.”
“I am crying because the King has put me here to spin this straw into gold, and I do not know how to set about it.”