The Magic Feather

Once upon a time there was a man, named Armelio, who was so poor that he had no food to eat and so, instead he imagined that he had food and, cooking an imaginary stew in an empty pot, he ladelled the imaginary stew into a bowl and, eating it with imaginary bread, said that it tasted delicious.
While Armelio was eating his imaginary meal however, there was a knock at the door of his shack.
And when he answered the door he saw a little man in a long purple robe who asked,
"As I was passing by your house I couldn't help but smell the delicious stew you were cooking and I wondered if you might share some with me".
Armelio was befuddled.
"I was eating an imaginary stew", he said, "But I really have no real food at all".
"Oh but it smells so nice", said the man at the door, "Won't you let me have just a portion".
So Armelio set a place at his table with an empty bowl and ladelled out some imaginary stew into it and, sitting down to eat the imaginary stew, the man said that it was the most delicious he had ever tasted.
But then the man explained that he was a fairy lord from the land of dreams and wishes and that what was imaginary to a mortal man was real to him and, because Armelio had been kind enough to share his imaginary meal with him, the fairy wanted to reward him.
So, reaching into his hat, the fairy took out a green feather.
"Follow where this feather blows", said the fairy, "And it will lead you to a fairy house. Enter the house and you will see beautiful young women that you must not look upon; delicious smelling food that you must not eat and a warm, double bed that you must not lie down upon. Near to the bed is a little chest of endless treasure which you must take and leave with but, take care that you do not stay in the house beyond sunset for, at sunset, the house and all who are within it disappears".
Then, putting his hat back upon his head, the fairy vanished just as if he had been a dream but the green feather he had left was real enough and so Armelio did as the fairy had instructed.
Setting out early in the morning he let go of the green feather and followed where the wind blew it and, after walking for a short time, he arrived at a brightly painted house in the woods.
Then, entering the house, just as the fairy had said, he saw lots of beautiful young women but because the fairy had told him not to look at them, he kept his eyes on the floor and kept walking until he entered the next room.
And in the next room Armelio saw a table laid out with a banquet of food that smelled delicious.
Infact it smelled so good that it made Armelios mouth water but, remembering that the fairy had warned him against eating it, he held his nose and kept walking until he entered a third room.
And in that third room, just as the fairy had said there would be, he saw a big, double bed and, beside it a little treasure chest.
But, after he had picked up the treasure chest, he made the mistake of sitting down upon the bed to look inside the chest and, no sooner had he sat upon the bed when he started to feel tired.
Infact he was so tired that he feared he might faint from tiredness and so, forgetting what the fairy had said about the bed, he lay down upon it and was soon fast asleep.
And Armelio remained asleep on the bed for hours and might have kept on sleeping all day if the green feather had not blown into the house and, landing upon the young mans nose, tickled it so much that it caused him to sneeze.
And when Armelio sneezed he woke up.
But then, to his horror, the man noticed reddish light streaming through the windows of the room he was in and remembered what the fairy had told him about the house that, at sunset, it would dissappear.
So, seizing the little treasure chest, he ran from the room and through the house as fast as he could.
And as he did, all the beautiful young women who had all turned into old crones, grasped hold of him and tried to stop him from leaving but then, reaching onto the table laid with delicious smelling food that had all turned rotten and rancid, he picked up a soup ladel and beat them off with it.
And a good job he did for no sooner had he managed to escape from the front door of  the house when he saw it begin to disappear just like a dream.
Even the soup ladel in his hand became a whisp of smoke and disappeared upon the wind.
Only the little treasure chest remained and so he took it back home with him and, because it was filled with endless treasure the man soon grew rich and never had to eat imaginary food ever again.