The Best Wish

Once upon a time there lived three brothers. 

The three Brothers were each granted a wish.

The first two brothers wished that whenever they put their hands in their pocket, they would always get money. 

The third brother who was Boots wished that any woman who saw him would fall in love with him. 

The two elder brothers now decided to live a rich life. They wanted to travel around the world in style, living as rich kings and princes would.

Boots wanted to come with them but the two brothers would not hear of it.

Finally because Boots had asked many times, the two brothers agreed to let Boots come long only if he introduced himself as their servant.

They went to a lavish inn first. 

As the elder brothers had wanted, the two elder brothers alone went inside the huge rooms of the inn. Boots stayed outside in the carriage as a servant of the two brothers.

The wife of the first innkeeper saw Boots and she was smitten when she saw him.

When she told her husband about how handsome Boots looked the husband got angry.

The innkeeper sent his wife inside the kitchen to make sure that his wife could not see Boots anymore.

However, even as the wife of the innkeeper had been making the lunch for the two elder brothers, without the knowledge of her husband, the wife came to the carriage and gave Boots a pair of scissors.

“Even as you snip these scissors in the air you shall get the finest dresses ever.” The wife of the innkeeper told Boots. “And the reason I am giving you these magical scissors is that you are the most handsome man I have ever seen.”

The two brothers had eaten their fill in the inn and spent the day in the inn. 

The next day the three of them decided to go to another inn in another place.

In this inn too the wife of the innkeeper was smitten as soon as she saw Boots near the carriage. This time too the wife of this innkeeper gave Boots a magical item. She gave him a table cloth which would fill itself with the tastiest food every time someone needed it. The reason the wife of this innkeeper did this was she found Boots very handsome.

On the third day when they had gone to the third inn the wife of the third innkeeper gave Boots a magic tap. The tap would give Boots any of the tastiest drinks like mead, wine or even brandy, when anyone so wanted it.

She also did this for the same reason that she found Boots a very handsome man.

 

After this the two brothers decided to go to a far away Kingdom as the guest of a king. 

It so happened that the king did not like to keep poor people in his Kingdom. As soon as any poor people came to his place the king had them ferried to another Island which was called Beggars Isle.

When the king saw Boots, the king immediately had Boots moved to the Beggars Isle. The elder brothers saw this but they did not stop the king. 

On reaching the island,Boots used his scissors and provided all the beggars clothes richer than what the king or any other royal person had. 

That night he even provided them with the best food and drinks that any of them ever had. 

The next morning the guards of the kingdom brought the leftover food from their Kingdom to the Beggars Isle. 

They were surprised because none of the beggars were even interested in looking at the food that they had brought. They were wearing the best dresses of all. 

The soldiers told the king what they had seen at the Beggars Isle. 

The king realized that there was something special about the last man who had been ferried to the Beggars Isle and he decided to find out what it was. 

He had Boots come over to the main Kingdom and that they found out about the scissors that Boots had with him.

The princess of the  Kingdom heard about these scissors and she desperately wanted to have it for herself so that she could have the best finery of all. 

But Boots was not willing to sell the scissors to her. 

Finally when the princess pleaded a lot, Boots agreed to give her the scissors if he let her sleep outside her palace room for a night. And that night the more she saw that man the more she realized that there was something special about him and she felt herself dragged to him. 

The next day Boots handed over the scissors to the princess and went back to the Beggars Isle. 

There the guards of the king found that the people there had good food. 

Soon they came to know about the tablecloth that Boots had. 

The princess wanted the tablecloth of Boots too. 

This time Boots agreed to give her the tablecloth, if she let him sleep on the floor inside her room. 

The second day the princess stared at Boots and she still could not shake away the feeling that this was the most handsome man she had ever seen in her life. 

But she did not act on it and she tried to sleep in her room without disturbing Boots. 

The third day when the guards who came to Beggars Isle came to know about Boot's tap. They told the king about this too. 

This time the princess agreed to let Boots sleep in her bed on the other side if Boots handed over the tap to her. 

Naturally this time too the princess the more the princess saw Boots the more she realized that she was in love with him. 

So at the end of the three nights Boots had given all the three magical items to the princess. 

But he married the princess who was desperately in love with him and had half the kingdom to rule. After the death of the king he got the entire kingdom to rule. 

Boots realized that his elder brothers had been cruel to him and had them shipped to the Beggars Isle where all the money that came out of their pockets was useless because there was nothing that they could buy with that.

Adapted from the folktales of Norse