Alone in the world, a poor girl walks out into the open fields and gives away every last thing she owns. In the dark wood the stars fall and turn to hard silver coins, and though the girl has given even her shirt away, she finds a new one of the finest linen to gather them into and is rich for the rest of her life.
Once there was a little girl whose father and mother had died. She was so poor that she had no room of her own to live in, and no bed of her own to sleep in.
All she owned in the world was the clothes on her back and one piece of bread, which a kind soul had pressed into her hand.
She was a good child, and it seemed the whole world had forgotten her. So she went out into the open fields, trusting in the good Lord to look after her.
Before long a poor man came along the road toward her.
“Please, give me something to eat,” he said. “I am so hungry.”
She held out her piece of bread, the whole of it, and said, “God bless you.” Then she went on her way.
A little further along she met a child who was crying.
“My head is so cold,” the child said. “Give me something to cover it.”
So she took off her cap and gave it away, and walked on.
After a while another child came by, shivering, with no bodice at all. This one asked her for nothing. She took off her own bodice and helped the child into it.
Further on still, a child begged her for a skirt. She gave her skirt away too.
At last she came to a wood, and by then night had fallen.
One more child was standing among the trees and asked her for a shirt.
“It is a dark night,” she said to herself. “Nobody can see you here. You can give your shirt away as well.”
So she pulled off her shirt and gave that away too.
And there she stood with nothing left at all, without so much as a rag on her back.
Then, all at once, the stars began to fall from the sky.
Down they came through the dark, and where they landed they were stars no longer, but hard, bright silver coins.
And though she had given her shirt away, she found she was wearing a new one, of the finest linen there is.
She gathered the coins into it, every last one, and she was rich for the rest of her life.
Retold by Talerie from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm (opens in a new window)License: Public domainCopy this text, adapt it, use it however you like. A link back to Talerie is appreciated but never required.CC0 1.0 (opens in a new window)
