The 3 Useful Things – A Short Fairytale

Once upon a time a long time ago a poor old man, before he passed away, left his son all the things that he possessed in all world; a cup that would always leak; an old, bent whistle that would always play out of tune and make a terrible racket and a loaf of stale bread that was as hard as a lump of stone.

“What useless things my father has left me”, thought the young man, “I am surely the unluckiest person in all the world”.

But then, one day he was walking through the woods when he met a strange old woman who had a bottle of blue wine and she offered him a drink.

Too polite to refuse her and also quite thirsty, the young man poured some of the strange wine into his cup that always leaked and tried to drink as much as he could before all the wine leaked out.

Unfortunately for him, the wine was drugged with a powerful sleeping potion because the old woman was a wicked witch who, as soon as he fell asleep, bundled him into a sack and took him back to her cave.

Fortunately for him, most of the drugged wine had leaked out of the cup and so he soon woke up
though, afraid of what the evil witch might do if she found out, pretended to be still asleep.

Believing him to be asleep the old witch left him lying in a corner of her cave while she prepared her cooking pot to cook him in, filling it full of water; lighting a fire under it and stirring it until the water started to bubble.

But, just as the water was hot and bubbling, the young man crawled out of the sack and, creeping up behind the evil witch, pushed her, screaming and yelling, into the cooking pot.

Now, the witch dead, the young man looked around the cave and found a small box full of gold and silver which he happily tucked under his arm and took home with him.

But, as he was walking home from the witches cave he passed a tall tower that was guarded by a giant rook and, locked in the tower was a beautiful princess who was calling to him, “Please save me, sir! Please!”.

At first, he didn’t know what to do but then he remembered his old bent whistle that always played out of tune and, blowing into it, made such a terrible noise that it scared the giant rook away.

Now he let the princess out of the tower and she was so grateful that she offered to marry him.

However, the witch he had killed had a brother; an evil wizard who had also kidnapped and locked
the princess in the tower.

When he found his sister dead and the princess gone, the wizard turned himself into a giant ogre and, with thunderously heavy footsteps and a terrible roar, he lumbered after the young man and the princess, brandishing a large spiky club above his head.

The young man soon heard giant footsteps behind him and, looking over his shoulder, saw the ogre pursuing them but he hadn’t a clue what to do until he remembered the loaf of bread as hard as a lump of stone and, hurling it at the giant ogre, he struck the creature on the side of its head, knocking it down dead.

And when the magical creature fell it turned into the most beautiful and gigantic mansion house with hundreds of rooms and servants where the young man and the princess stayed and raised lots of children and lived happily ever after.

“What useful things my father left me”, the young man then said, smiling, “I am surely the luckiest person in the world”.