Once upon a time, a woodcutter lived in a forest with his wife. He would cut down trees in the forest and sell them at the market. This was his only way to make money.
One day, he went out to the forest, like so many other days, to cut down trees. He sang and enjoyed the nature and its beauty. Suddenly, he saw a huge tree in front of him. He thought about cutting it down, as there was a lot of money to be made from such a massive tree.
As the woodcutter took his axe and was about to chop down the tree, he heard a voice:
“Don’t cut this tree.”
The woodcutter stopped and looked around, but he couldn’t see anyone. He thought he was imagining things, but then he heard the voice again.
“Be kind to me, don’t cut this tree.”
The woodcutter stopped again and looked around, but he still couldn’t see anyone. He was quite confused.
Then a fairy spoke from the tree:
“I am a fairy and I live in this tree. In winter, I live in the trunk, and for the rest of the year, I live on the branches. If you cut down this tree, I will have nowhere to live, and winter is approaching, and I will freeze to death. You really must not destroy my home. Instead, I will grant you three wishes.”
The woodcutter was very happy. Now he could become rich without having to do any work. He accepted the fairy’s offer and ran home to tell his wife what had happened.
However, she was surprised to see her husband home so early and said:
“Why have you come home already? You look very happy, what has happened?”
The woodcutter replied: “I found a great treasure today. Although I haven’t received it yet, I will soon.” And he started to dance. His wife couldn’t understand and said: “What are you talking about? Tell me. I’m so curious.”
The woodcutter told his wife the whole story. His wife jumped for joy. The woodcutter said: “I’m hungry. I need something to eat.”
His wife said: “Since you usually come home late, I haven’t prepared anything yet. Wait a bit, and I’ll prepare something for you.”
The woodcutter said: “No, don’t make anything. I have three wishes. And for the first wish, I want lots of warm pudding.” As soon as he said these words, a plate of warm pudding appeared in front of him. He ate it with great satisfaction, and the plate kept filling up again and again.
Then he asked his wife to eat the delicious pudding as well. But she was very angry and said: “You wasted a wish, and now I wish the pudding were stuck to your nose!” The pudding immediately stuck to his nose. The woodcutter became irritated and said: “Oh, what a fool you are! What have you done?” He tried to remove the pudding from his nose, but the pudding stayed in place.
He scolded his wife and said: “You’ve wasted wish number two.” The woodcutter became annoyed and said: “Oh! You’re such a fool. There’s warm pudding stuck to my nose, so now we can’t wish for money! I wish the pudding would disappear right now!” The pudding disappeared. The woodcutter felt incredibly relieved.
In this way, the woodcutter and his wife lost the golden opportunity to become rich.
