The New Skirt

Once upon a time, there lived a husband and wife. They didn’t live in wealth—rather, it would be more accurate to say they lived in poverty. The wife had only one skirt, tattered and worn, patched and repatched. All day long, she did nothing but sew patches onto it. The skirt was so covered in patches that you could barely see the original fabric. One day, the husband came home to find his wife crying.

"Look—another hole in the skirt! And I have nothing left to patch it with," she wept.
The next day, the husband spent all the money he had earned to buy his wife a new skirt. He brought it home and said,
"Even if we go without dinner tonight, at least you’ll have something new to wear."
The wife was overjoyed.

The husband went to bed, and she got to work.

When he woke up, he saw that his wife had cut the new skirt into pieces and used them to patch the old one. He gasped in shock, but his wife said,
"Thank you, dear husband. I’ve fixed all the holes, and look how many pieces are left—enough to last a whole year!"

More fairy tales

• The Princess from the Orange
• How the Jester Gonella Made a Bet
• Matteo and Mariuccia
• Bread, Wine, and Salt
• Money Can Do Everything