The Lady of the House spent a long time in this wonderful shop, looking at all the unexpected, fascinating wonders and inhaling their magical aromas.
Suddenly, with a start, she awoke from the intoxicating atmosphere and mystery of the shop, she decided that it was time to leave and go home but, just as suddenly, she noticed an old teapot on a shelf next to a lot of old books. It was an ordinary, unremarkable teapot – white, with a simple pattern on the sides. The only odd feature of the teapot, perhaps, was the absence of a lid, and this made it seem lonely, useless and abandoned. After all, hardly anyone would ever want to buy a teapot without a lid.
But, she decided, such a lonely teapot definitely needs its own home. And as for the lid… "I have a lot of different tea sets, surely there will be a lid that will fit this teapot," she thought, so she bought it!
Returning home, she set about brewing tea in the new teapot. She thought for a long time about which lid to choose for the teapot, and finally decided to take one from one of her oldest tea sets. The lid was white and went well with the colour of the new teapot.
She boiled some water, rinsed the inside of the teapot with boiling water, poured two spoons of ordinary Indian tea into it, poured in the boiling water and closed the lid. The lid almost fitted, but it was a little too big and overhung the pot leaving a small gap, allowing a little steam to escape.
After waiting for some time until the tea was brewed, she removed the lid so that it would not fall into her cup while she was pouring herself tea, and reached for her favourite cup. The fragrant steam, meanwhile, quickly began to rise above the teapot, and when she finally poured herself a cup of tea, it had completely evaporated. She took a sip of tea. It was absolutely tasteless…
"Ufff!" – the Lady of the House was very disappointed. – "While the teapot was standing without a lid, all the aroma had disappeared… But never mind, tomorrow morning I'll try to find a better lid for the teapot. That should do the trick!".