My Own Fairy Tales

The Hard-working Husband & The Lazy-Husband

Once upon a time there were two poor men who recently got married. One man married a very rich woman so he became rich and the other man married a woman who was poor like him. The first man was happy he married a rich woman; the truth is he was lazy, so he was happy he didn't have to work ever again. The other man however was a hard-working man and he was willing to do anything to help his wife feel happy. But no matter how hard he worked he was still a poor man and could barely buy food for him and his wife. It made him worry about what to do once they started a family.

One day the hard-working husband went out to look for some work, when a horse and carriage stopped by him. A man stepped out of the carriage to talk to the husband.

"Might I ask where you are going sir?" asked the man.

"I am looking for work sir, to earn money for myself and my wife" answered the hard-working husband.

"Then you can work for me," said the man "I need someone to help take care of my home". The hard-working husband was delighted he was being given a job and got into the man's carriage.

The horse and carriage drove to a big fancy mansion; this was where the man lived. The hard-working husband entered the mansion with the man. It was more fancy inside than it was outside and there were lots of rooms.

"Now I have business to attend elsewhere so I will be gone for six days and be back on the seventh day," said the man "there are six rooms in this mansion I want you to take care of while I'm away; my butler will show you which rooms to look after. The other rooms are taken care of by the other servants of this mansion, so you won't need to look after them. But don't ever enter the room at the end of the corridor upstairs on the right. Work well and I will reward you when I return". Then the man left for his business.

The man's butler led the husband to a room upstairs. "You will rest in this room for tonight, and you will start working tomorrow, goodnight" said the butler, and he left.

The husband opened the door to a big bedroom. The bedroom had a table and chair and on the table were a fine meal and a cup of wine waiting for him. He happily ate the food and drank the wine; he hadn't had such a good meal before. Then he got into the comfortable bed to sleep.

The next morning the butler led the husband to the first room he had to take care of. "Each of the rooms my master has asked you to take care of will take you one whole day just to complete one;" said the butler "so today you will do this room and tomorrow you will do the next one. Get to work now". And the butler left.

The husband felt that the rooms must be really messy because of what the butler said. He opened the door, but on the other side of the door was something very strange. There in the room was an enormous field, waiting to be ploughed, with an Ox and a wooden plough. "That's strange," said the hard-working husband "I didn't see any fields when I was outside. And the butler said this was a room of this mansion". This was all very strange indeed, but the husband didn't have time to ask questions about it. So he walked over to the Ox and plough and got to work ploughing the whole field. As the field was enormous it did take the hard-working husband all day to plough the whole field.

Once the husband was finally finished with the field, the butler came. "Ah I see you have done a good job here," said the butler, admiring the field, "there's a meal waiting for you in your room, so you may go and rest yourself up now. Your next job starts tomorrow". The husband wanted to ask why there was a field in the room, but the butler left before he could ask. So he just went back to his room, ate his meal and went to sleep.

Over the next five days the husband worked in the other five rooms he was told to work in. But like the first room the other rooms were not what the husband expected. The second room was a bakery where he had to help a baker with his bread; mainly keeping an eye on the bread and cakes while they cooked and take them out of the oven. The third room was a big vineyard where he had to pick the grapes and crush them to make wine. The fourth room was a big orchard where he had to pick apples, peaches, cherries, pears and plums from the trees. The fifth room was an underground coal mine where he had to mine for coal. The sixth room was filled with stables with many magnificent horses where he cleaned out the stables and cared for all the horses.

The seventh day came and the man returned. The butler told him how well the hard-working husband worked and how splendidly he worked. The man was happy to hear that. He told the husband to follow him. The man led him to the room he was told not to enter. "You may enter this room now" said the man. The husband opened the door and to his surprise there were piles and piles of gold coins, diamonds and jewellery. "You make take what you want from this room as a reward for all your hard work" said the man. The husband was delighted and gathered up many gold coins and diamonds as he could carry into a sack. He even gathered some jewellery to take back to his wife. Then the man led him outside to where a horse and carriage were waiting. "This horse and carriage will take you home" said the man. This meant the husband was allowed to go back home to his wife. "Thank you for letting me work here and for the money sir, goodbye" said the hard-working husband. He got into the carriage and the horse pulled the carriage for his home.

The husband's wife was waiting for him when he finally got home.

"Oh my husband," she said, running up to him, "where have you been for these last seven days? And what was that carriage that brought you home"?"

The hard-working husband told his wife about the man, the mansion, the six strange rooms and the jobs he did. Then he showed her all the gold, diamonds and jewellery he brought back with him. "Oh wow" said his wife, surprised with all that gold, diamonds and jewellery. Thanks to the rewards he received, the hard-working husband and his wife were now rich and they didn't have to worry about being poor again.

The story of the hard-working husband's good fortune reached the ears of the lazy husband's wife. Despite she was already very rich, she wanted the same riches as the hard-working husband and his wife. She told her husband the story and told him to work for the man too. Of course her husband didn't want to as he was lazy and didn't like to work, but his wife nagged him to do so till he gave in.

The next day the lazy husband walked down the same path the hard-working husband walked down, where he met the man. A moment later the man arrived in his carriage and asked the lazy husband where he was going. Remembering his wife's story, the lazy husband said he was looking for work and the man asked the lazy husband to work for him. Of course the lazy husband didn't really want to work for the man, but remembering the riches from his wife's story he agreed and got into the carriage.

Once the horse and carriage arrived at the mansion, the man told the lazy husband the same things he told the hard-working husband, even the room he was not allowed to enter, and left. The butler led the lazy husband to his room for the night, and next morning led the lazy husband to the first room to work in. Unfortunately over the next six days the lazy husband didn't work as hard as the hard-working husband. He kept slacking off when ploughing the enormous field, kept on burning the bread and cakes in the bakery, kept on eating grapes and drinking wine in the vineyard, barely picked the fruits off the trees in the orchard, kept slacking off while mining in the coal mine and didn't look after the stables and horses properly. The only thing he did do was not enter the forbidden room because he wanted to get his reward.

On the seventh day the man returned. The butler told the man about the lazy husband's laziness, irresponsibility and disobedience, while he wasn't around. That of course made the man cross. Later that day the man led the lazy husband to the forbidden room. "You may enter this room now because of your work" said the man. The lazy husband eagerly opened the door for the gold coins, diamonds and jewellery. But the room wasn't filled with cold coins, diamonds and jewellery; it was filled with bees, birds and cats and they were fierce. The lazy husband got stung by the bees, pecked by the birds and scratched by the cats. Because of his laziness he was receiving punishments instead of rewards. He screamed in pain and ran away from the mansion as fast as he could.

The wife was waiting for her husband when he ran back home. She expected him to have gold coins, diamonds and jewellery on him, but she saw nothing but stings, pecks and scratches all over him. "What happened?" she asked. The lazy husband told her everything that happened. The wife became angry and humiliated by her husband's laziness. The next day she threw him out of her house; she didn't want a lazy, irresponsible and disobedient man for a husband anymore, she now wanted a hard-working, responsible and obedient man for a husband.

So in the end the hard-working husband lived a happier care-free life thanks to the riches he got from the man. And he and his wife started a new family together. As for the lazy man he just lived the rest of his life as a lazy, miserable fool.