The Wise Weaver

Once a king was in his court hearing his people. At that time an envoy from the neighbouring kingdom came to his court.

The envoy spoke no words. He merely drew a huge circle in the middle of the court.

After drawing the circle the envoy sat by the side patiently.

The envoy was very silent after that.

A few minutes later it became obvious that the circle drawn by the envoy was a message and that the envoy would offer no other explanations for his actions or his reason to come here.

The king did not know what the circle meant neither did his ministers.

The king decided to ask the common people in his kingdom about the meaning of the circle.

Under the orders of the king the courtiers and the ministers announced the actions of the envoy to the common people of the kingdom.

Most of the people in the kingdom stared blankly at the riddle.

However one particular courtier felt that a wise old man could know the meaning of the riddle. So the courtier went to the house of the old man to see if the old man could help with the puzzle.

The courtier was surprised as soon as he entered the house. There he saw a swing gently swinging itself in the first room. In the second room the courtier saw another swing swinging itself. The swinging moved making sure that the branches of a willow tree moved to scare away the sparrows which could come and eat the corn from the field near the house.

In the basement of the house the courtier found a weaver. But surprisingly the weaver was not doing any work himself. He had obviously built a machine which followed his commands. The weaver directed the machine and the weaving machine would work by itself.

The courtier was sure that the weaver would be able to solve the riddle.

And so the courtier told the old weaver everything.

The weaver smiled as soon as he heard the words of the courtier.

From a nearby hen-coop the weaver picked up a knuckle-bone first. The weaver also picked up a hen and went with the courtier to the king's court.

There the weaver saw the envoy sitting patiently at the side of the court.

The weaver placed the knuckle bone right next to the circle drawn by the envoy. 

As a reply the envoy threw millet seeds all over the place. 

The weaver then placed the hen which ate up all the millet seeds. 

A second later the envoy got up and left the place.

The king and his ministers looked surprised. "What is the meaning of all this?" The king asked the weaver.

The weaver smiled. "The envoy was a messenger of the neighbouring king. With the circle the envoy wanted to know what you would do if the neighbouring king surrounded our kingdom with all their soldiers? The envoy wanted to know whether you would lay down your arms and stop fighting and hand over the kingdom to them."

The king was astonished as the weaver continued "I told him that all these threats were not serious and were just toys like the knuckle-bone for us."

"And the millet seeds?" The king asked anxiously.

"That meant that the neighbouring king could order more soldiers from other places too."

The Weaver studied his hen and smiled at the king "I replied that we could easily destroy all the men that they would bring to our kingdom, just as the hen had eaten all the millet seeds."

"The envoy probably realised the futility of the attack and went away, your majesty," the weaver told the king.

The king was overwhelmed with the wise Weaver and thanked him profusely. 

The king gave the weaver a huge plot of land where the weaver could live for the rest of his life with wealth and prosperity. 

None of the neighbouring kingdoms ever attacked this kingdom because they had all realised that this kingdom had clever and wise people and the people of this kingdom would always fight back and win.

From the Olive Fairy Book by Andrew Lang