The town of Stavoren was an old seaport in Holland. Quite a while prior a dealer lived there, who had a fleet of boats that ventured to the far corners of the world purchasing merchandise to take back to Holland for the trader to offer.
The vendor had turned out to be to a rich, and had constructed himself a brilliant house ideal on the edge of the water. He was a kind and big hearted man, who treated his people exceptionally well, and he was constantly prepared to help the poor individuals in the town. When he kicked the bucket, the entire town was in grieving for month.
The main individual who was happy that he had passed away was his wife. She was an exceptionally narrow minded, and she had been extremely angry at whatever point her husband had given any cash to a needy people. She took control over the running of the business, and without her better half there, she could do things her way. At times some poor individual came to her to request some assistance, some food, or some money; she cursed them and sent them away. “Discover some work! Get a job!” she yelled. When she was not in her harbor office, managing purchasers and her captains, she would be at home in her mansion, counting her cash.
She had all that she would ever have longed for: a delightful place to live in, the best furniture and garments and all the cash on the planet. People said that she was richer than the royal family. She dreamt for something that no one else on the planet had. Just she didn’t recognize what that was. So one day she assembled her captains and instructed them to travel to every corner of the world and bring her back the most valuable items they could discover.
The captains cruised away, and for some long months nothing was heard or seen from them. At that point gradually they began returning. One had been to Africa and had discovered magnificent ivory carvings produced using the tusks of elephants. No one in the entire town had ever observed such wonderful object however the old lady was not fulfilled. Another had been the distance to China and brought back beautiful silks and green and black jade. Still the old lady was not upbeat. Another had been toward the East Indies and brought back a variety of herbs that no one had tasted previously, however the old lady rejected the captain and instructed him to go out once more. Others had been to Arabia, where they discovered white horses and perfectly created gold daggers decorated with valuable stones, to India, where they discovered tiger skins and fine silver jewellery, to Turkey and Greece, where they discovered hand woven silk rugs and painted vases.
But always the old lady’s response was the same. She just couldn’t be fulfilled. Every one of the boats had returned with the exception of one. The old woman sat in her castle and waited. At that point the ship showed up coming soon. One day, on the Baltic coast, they had gone over a warehouse full with the best most perfect grain that anyone had ever looked at. It was a brilliant golden colour, and each grain was superbly formed, full of goodness of life. So they filled the boats with this valuable grain and set sail for home.
But when the old woman boarded the ship, and saw the grain, she was furious. “How could you!” she shouted. “What an insult, what a misuse of money! What am I going to do with this useless grain?” In her anger she requested the captain to tip his load into the ocean. One of the ship’s crew, a poor old man, begged her to spare some of the grain to provide for the needy individuals in the town. However, she refused.
“Don’t be stupid”, she stated, “The poor will be poor since they refuse to work!” The old man cursed her; “You will regret this one day”, he stated, “one day when you will be begging for a crust of bread!” The old lady giggled dismissively. She pulled an expansive gold ring from her finger. “You see this ring?” she inquired. “I’d preferably toss this ring into the ocean than give one bunch of grain to those layabouts on the shore!””Watch me!” the old lady tossed the ring into the ocean, to the extent she could. The old man looked at her in the eye.
“One day this ring will return to you”, he stated, “and after that you will beg!” One day she was at the harbor side, when a fishing boat was unloading its catch. Among the fish she detected an especially gorgeous sea bass. “I need that fish!” she yelled. A little later she sat down at her eating table, and the cook got the fish on a gold platter. She cut the side of the fish, and seperated the flesh from the bone.
At that point, regrettably, there inside the fish was the substantial gold ring she had tossed into the ocean quite recently. She shouted, and requested the cook to take away the fish and to throw it out with the junk. She saw the picture of that old man before her, revealing to her what might happen. “Never!” she shouted, “I will never beg!” At precisely that time, dark clouds obscured the sky, an terrible storm got up, and it rained for a considerable length of time and days on end.
There was so much water that first the mansion overflowed, and after that the entire town and all the surrounding fields. The influence of the water and the breeze joined to thump the castle down, and it vanished into the ocean, with all the old lady’s great furniture, her fine silks and all her cash. At the point when the breeze at long last quieted, the rain ceased and the waters withdrew, there was nothing left of her castle, and a large portion of the town was in ruins. The old lady had lost everything, except of the garments she wore.
She was cold and hungry, and she all of a sudden felt exceptionally old. Where was she going to get some food? She began strolling down the road, searching for a door to knock on. In any case, every one of the general population in the town recollected her meanness and her cruelty, and declined to help her. So she was compelled to leave the town, and began roaming the farmland, begging for a crust where she could.
