# The Star Money _Brothers Grimm_ · 3 min read · ages 4-8 A poor orphan girl, alone in the world, gives away everything she has, her bread, her cap, her clothes, and finally her last shirt, to those colder and hungrier than herself. In the end her kindness is repaid when the stars themselves fall as shining coins, providing for her for the rest of her life. --- Once upon a time there was a little girl whose mother and father had both died. She was so poor that she had no room to sleep in and no bed to call her own. In the end, all she had left in the world was the clothes she wore and a small piece of bread that a kind soul had given her. But she was good and gentle at heart, and though everyone had left her, she trusted in God and walked out into the open countryside. Before long she met a poor man who called out to her, “Please, give me something to eat. I am so hungry.” She handed him her whole piece of bread and said, “May this do you good,” and went on her way. A little farther on she came upon a child who was crying. “My head is so cold,” the child said. “Won’t you give me something to cover it?” So she took off her cap and gave it to him. When she had walked on a while longer, she met another child who had no jacket and was shivering with cold, so she gave away her own. Not far after that, a third child begged for a dress, and she gave that away too. At last she came to a forest, and by then night had fallen. There in the darkness she met one more child, who asked for a little shirt to wear. The kind girl thought to herself, “It’s night, and no one can see me. I can very well give away my shirt too.” So she took off her last piece of clothing and gave it away, and now she had nothing left at all. As she stood there with not a single thing to her name, the stars above suddenly began to fall from the sky. They landed at her feet, and each one turned into a bright, shining coin. And though she had just given away her very last shirt, she found herself wearing a brand new one, made of the finest linen there ever was. She gathered all the coins into it, and she was cared for and never wanted for anything again, for as long as she lived. --- - Read online: https://talerie.com/en/tales/the-star-money - Source: Grimm’s Household Tales, Vol. 2, translated by Margaret Hunt (1884), KHM 153 (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Grimm%27s_Household_Tales,_Volume_2/The_Star_Money) - Public-domain basis: Talerie contemporary retelling (CC0 2026), based on: Grimm’s Household Tales, Vol. 2, translated by Margaret Hunt (1884), KHM 153 — original: Wilhelm Grimm died 1859, Jacob Grimm died 1863 (+70); translation: Margaret Hunt died 1912 (+70) - License: CC0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)