About the Shoemaker

In a big city, there lived a poor shoemaker. Whatever he earned in a day, he would spend in the evening. He lived from day to day like this. He never visited taverns. He brought all his earnings home and every evening indulged in merrymaking with his wife and children.

One day, the king wanted to know how and who lived in his city. He disguised himself, put on the attire of a market overseer, and went out at night to wander the city.

The king looked around—everyone was asleep, but from one house, he heard voices. He knocked and entered. He saw the shoemaker sitting and enjoying supper with his family.

The host invited the guest to the table, thinking, "He's one of the market overseers, he might be useful someday!"
"Forgive me for asking, brother, but tell me, what do you do for a living? How can you drink and celebrate on such an ordinary day as if it were a holiday?" asked the king.
"I, my brother, am a shoemaker. Whatever I earn in a day, I spend in the evening with my family," replied the shoemaker.
"And what will you do if the shops are closed?"
"Oh, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. I’d starve," said the shoemaker.

The king left. The next morning, he ordered that no one should work or trade that day—it was a holiday, he said. The shoemaker's shop was closed too. That evening, the king disguised himself again and went to visit the shoemaker.

He saw that the shoemaker was celebrating just as he had the day before.
"Ah, hello, friend! Please, come to the table!" greeted the shoemaker.
"How are you celebrating today," asked the king, "when our king has closed all the shops?"
"Curse that king of ours," said the shoemaker. "He closed my stall, so I couldn’t work. What could I do? I went out into the street—carried water for someone, chopped wood for another, ran errands for others—and still managed to earn a little. I brought it home, and here we are, enjoying ourselves."

The king left. The next morning, he ordered the shoemaker to be brought to the palace, armed him, and stationed him as a guard at the doors. The poor shoemaker stood guard all day, and in the evening, he returned home, sat down, and grew sad, having earned nothing that day.
"Why are you so sad, my dear?" asked his wife. "Others go without food for weeks. I’ve heard of people fasting for twenty or even forty days, and we can’t endure one day?"

To cheer himself up, the shoemaker took a stick and began to whittle it. He whittled and whittled until one side of the stick became sharp, like a sword. Seeing this, he jumped up, brought a large branch, whittled it, sharpened it like a sword, took his steel sword out of its scabbard, replaced it with the wooden one, took the steel sword to the market, sold it, bought food and drink, brought it home, and, as always, sat down to a cheerful supper.

The king disguised himself again and went to visit the shoemaker. Once more, the shoemaker invited the king to the table.
"Today, that fool of a king made me a guard. How was I supposed to earn anything? I came home, sat hungry, and grieved that there was nothing to eat. Then I thought—surely the king won’t actually make me kill someone? I took my sword, sold it, and put a wooden stick in the scabbard. How would the king know what’s in my scabbard? Wife, fetch my wooden stick," said the shoemaker. "Let’s show our friend what kind of sword I have."

The next morning, the shoemaker attached the wooden sword and went to guard the king’s doors.
The king laughed to himself.
"Now I’ll show him," he thought.
The king called one of his servants and began to scold him, hitting him and shouting as if the poor man had truly done something wrong.
"Call my guard at once! Let him behead this lazy good-for-nothing, this traitor, this liar!" shouted the king.
"Great, merciful sovereign, forgive him. He’s ignorant, he made a mistake. Please, forgive him," pleaded the shoemaker-guard.
"He cannot be forgiven. He has wronged me so much that he deserves to be hanged. Cut off his head now, or I’ll have yours removed immediately."

What could the shoemaker do? He stood up, raised his eyes to the sky, and said:
"Lord, if this unfortunate man is truly innocent and has done no wrong to the king, let this sword turn to wood!"
He spoke and drew the wooden sword from its scabbard.

The king admired his quick thinking. He rewarded him with gold and silver and let him go.
"Go and live as you did before," he said.

Feast here, famine there,
Ashes there, flour here.

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About the Shoemaker

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