“‘Wonderful cloth, let one who is hungry and thirsty find here everything he wants.’”
The oak ceased, and the lad, saluting and thanking it, commenced to go home. As he went he wondered what his brothers would say to him, and he thought how pleased his mother would be when he told her that he had got the wonderful cloth. When he was half-way home he met a beggar, who said to him—
“See, I am old, ill, and ragged, for the love of God give me something, either money or a piece of bread.”
The idiot laid his cloth on the grass, and said—
“Wonderful cloth, let those who are hungry and thirsty find here all they want.”
Immediately there was a whistling in the air; something shone over them, and they found before them a table set as if for a king’s feast. There were numberless dishes, goblets full of hydromel, and glasses full of the best wines. The things on the table were all of gold or of silver.
The idiot and his guest admired the table and commenced to eat and drink. When they had finished eating and drinking the table vanished, and the idiot wrapped up his cloth and began to go homewards, when the old man said to him—
“Give me your cloth, and take this stick in its stead. When you speak to it such-and-such words it belabours people so that they will give all the world to escape from it.”
The idiot, thinking of his brothers, took the cudgel and gave the man the cloth. So they parted.
Now afterwards he considered that the oak had told him to keep the cloth himself, and that, having given it away, he would not be able to surprise his mother as he had intended. So he said to the stick—