” he said, “if a man with such a wonderful ring spends the night here.”
The goldsmith gave the farmer some bottles of wine to drink and talked to him like a friend. But he was a false friend, indeed! At night, when the farmer was fast asleep, he took the ring from his finger, and put another one in its place, which looked just like the wishing ring.
In the morning the goldsmith could hardly wait[9] until his guest left his house. As soon as the farmer went away, he hurried to his shop, closed the shutters, locked the door, turned the ring on his finger and said, “I wish to have a hundred thousand sovereigns.[10]”
As soon as he said these words the sovereigns began to come raining down.[11] The sovereigns fell on his head, his shoulders, his arms; they fell all over his body. He tried to get to the door, but the rain of gold made it impossible. Soon the gold covered all his body. He couldn’t move, and it still rained. At last the floor could bear the weight no longer, and the goldsmith and the gold fell into the cellar.
When the neighbours heard the terrible noise, they came running and broke open the door. But they were too late. The greedy goldsmith was already dead.
So they sighed and said, “What a misfortune it is to have so much money!” And they all put in their pockets as much money as they could carry and went away.
Meanwhile the farmer came home and showed the ring to his wife.
“We are lucky people,” he said, “our fortune is made. But we must be careful. We must choose the right wish.”
His wife was delighted.
“Let’s wish for some more land,” she said. “There is a nice bit of land between two of our fields. What do you say to that? I think it’s the best wish we can have.”
But the farmer answered, “I am sure we can wish for something better than that. If we work hard for a year, we shall perhaps be able to buy this bit of land.”
So they worked very hard for a year and as the harvest was good, they had enough money to buy that bit of land easily.
“You see,” said the farmer to his wife with a smile, “we have that bit of land now, and we still have our wish.”
“Then perhaps we shall wish for a cow and a horse?” offered his wife. “Our life will be easier then. We shall not have to work so much.”
“My good wife,” said the farmer, “let’s not waste our wish, just for nothing.