There was once a rich man, who was unfortunately a miser.
A poor man worked hard under the rich man for three full years.
At the end of the third year, the rich man had still not paid any money, the poor man finally went to the rich man and asked him his wages.
However the rich man did not want to pay the poor man so much money. So he took out three pence and paid it to the man. “Three pence. One for each year that you have worked for me.” The rich man said, in a tone broking no further argument.
The poor man decided that he might as well work somewhere else. So with that thought, the poor man left the house of the rich man and without a backward glance, he kept walking.
As he walked, the man realized that he was going to start a new life. The thought excited him so much that the man was happily humming to himself as he walked. The man was looking so unnatural as he looked pleased with himself that a dwarf decided to follow the man.
“Who are you? Where are you going?” The dwarf finally asked the man.
The man shrugged smiling. “I am going to the next village in search of work.”
“You seem very happy.” The dwarf observed studying the man curiously.
“Yes.” The man said grinning. “I am happy because I have the money which I have earned for the past three years.”
“How much money do you have?” The dwarf was surprised as he asked the man.
“Three pence.” The man told the dwarf.
The dwarf all but gasped and then he stopped himself as he studied the man again. The dwarf had a sudden shrewd look as he nodded at the man. “I have no money at all. Can you please give me some money?”
The man looked surprised as the dwarf continued. “You are healthy. You can work and get back some money. However, I am very poor. Please, give me some money.” The dwarf was pleading.
The man looked at the dwarf and realized that what the dwarf had said was true. He could earn the money again. So shrugging to himself, the man handed all the three coins to the dwarf.
The dwarf looked amazed as he saw the three coins in his hands. He then looked at the man with something close to respect.
“You are a kind and honest person. You gave me all the three coins that you had. For this, I will grant you three boons. One boon for each coin that you have given me.” The dwarf was smiling at the man.
The man blinked and suddenly grinned to himself. “I wish for a bow. And not a ordinary bow. A bow which would bring down anything that I shoot with it.”
No sooner had the man spoken than a bow appeared in his hands.
Surprised, the man continued. “I want a fiddle. A special fiddle. So that if I play with the fiddle, then all the people who hear the music shall begin to dance.”
The dwarf smiled and the man found a fiddle in his hands.
The dwarf looked expectantly as the man continued. “I wish that if I ask anything from any person I meet henceforth, they should not be able to refuse me.”
The dwarf grinned as he vanished from there.
The man continued his journey, more happy than before.
As the man walked on, he saw a fat pouchy man looking at the top of a tree, where a bird was singing melodiously.
The man went closer and saw that the bird was a thrush.
The man saw the fat man at the bottom of the tree. The fat man was looking at the bird with yearning in his greedy eyes. The only thing stopping the man for getting closer to the tree were the thorns around the tree.
The man with the bow and the fiddle realized almost immediately that the fat man was exactly like the master that he had served for the past three years.
“What do you want?” The man asked the pouchy man.
“That bird.” The fat man said without a second glance. “The bird sings beautifully and I wish to own it.”
“Is that all?” The man asked as he pulled out his bow.
He shot the bird as the bird fell down unconscious at the bottom of the tree. Eagerly, the fat man went towards the bird and was right on top of the bird, when he heard another beautiful sound.
Surprised, the fat man saw his body swaying to the music as he turned and saw the man with a bow, now playing a fiddle.
As the man played the fiddle, the fat man found to his horror that he could not stop dancing. The music got faster as the man's feet hurt as he danced on the thorns near the end of the tree.
“Why...who....what...who are you?” The fat man gasped unable to stop dancing.
“You have made enough people suffer.” The man said with stern eyes. “Now it is your turn.”
“Please....please...” The fat man pleaded. “I will give you anything. Please just stop playing the fiddle.”
The man stopped playing the fiddle as the fat man almost collapsed on the ground. Sobbing he ripped open his pouch which had the money he had taken from another poor man and the fat man gave the money to the man with the fiddle.
Without a backward glance, the man with the fiddle took the money and walked away from there.
Now, after the man had left, the fat miser was burning with anger. He could not believe that a man had been so fearless, as to take money from him.
Angrily the miser thought of getting revenge on the man.
The man with the fiddle now walked on and he played the music and used the bow as and when necessary.
Then suddenly out of nowhere, he saw the guards from the kingdom surround him.
The man was watching shocked as the guards arrested him.
“What...what did I do?” The man asked as the guards were leading him away.
“You stole from a man yesterday. You beat him up and took his money.” The chief guard told the man in an emotionless tone.
“I did no such thing!” The man yelled.
But the guards heard nothing. The guards dragged the man and had him come before the jailer.
A stern looking jailer was studying the man before him.
“Did you beat this man up and steal from him?” The jailer was angry as he pointed to the man's left.
The man turned and was shocked to see the fat miser looking at him. The miser was still wearing the same clothes of yesterday, which had been torn from the thorns of the tree.
“I did not!” The man said indignantly.
“Check his pockets.” The fat miser said with a smirk. “You will find my money in his purse.”
On the orders of the jailer, the guards checked the pockets of the man and pulled out the money, which the miser had given the man.
“He gave me the money. I did not steal it!” The man yelled as the guards saw the coins.
“You shall be hanged for theft!” The jailer spoke immediately as soon as he had seen the gold coins. The jailer knew that there was no reason for the miser to give his money to the man.
The man was gagged and led away from there and was sentenced to be hanged the next day.
The next day the man was about to be hanged.
“Any last wishes?” The jailer asked the man carelessly.
“Yes, I wish to play my fiddle.” The man said.
“NO!” The miser screamed.
However the third wish of the dwarf was that people would give the man anything that he asked for. He had asked for the fiddle and nobody was able to resist the wish.
The fiddle was handed over to him.
The man started playing a tune. The entire village started dancing and after some time they all realized that none of them could stop dancing.
“Please....please...stop!” The people there begged the man.
The man stopped.
The jailer gave him hundred coins to the man to never play the fiddle again.
The man then turned to the miser.
“Did I steal this money from you?” He demanded pointing to the sack of money in the miser's hands.
“No! No!” The miser said hurriedly as he fearfully studied the fiddle. “I paid him to stop playing the fiddle.”
But then the miser was too late.
The man with the fiddle left, as the jailer ordered for the miser to be executed for his crime.
- Based on the stories by the Grimm Brothers
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