Three Wishes

There lived once a hapless couple in one mediaeval German town. As ill-luck would have it, the couple had only one mistake, which is commonly inherent in everyone. The more one has, the more one will desire to possess. Out of this mistake, so many unwise desires come about, like it happened once to our Hans and his dear wife.

Soon they wished to possess the land of the mayor, soon the money of the Löwenwirt (brewery owner), soon the house, courtyard, and cattle of one Meier, and soon one-hundred-million Taler (15th and 16th century silver coins issued by the German states then).

The couple was completely isolated from the amenities of life, with only poverty and want surrounding them. Their abject poverty had coerced them to live in conditions beyond human tolerance and despair. They lived in a poorly-built dark shack, with even God having a twisted sense of humour on them. They often sat at a fireplace brooding over their lives and thinking of the wealth and pleasures their neighbours had to boast of. It was a God-forsaken couple that had fallen victim to the merciless fate. 

The story goes on

One cold evening, the man and his wife were sitting by the fireplace and talking about the fate and deteriorating living conditions they were undergoing day by day. Suddenly, a bright light penetrated through the broken window. The room glowed in illumination all around, much to the surprise of the perplexed couple.

A fairy appeared in the room with a magic wand (light) in her hand. It was a sight to behold akin to that of a long-awaited dream.

“Don’t be afraid!” said the fairy. “I have come to improve your lives,” she said and added, "I will grant you three wishes that you can fulfil together." This boon of the fairy generated a sense of great joy in the couple’s mind. Impatient as they became, they both said to each other. How cruel has fate turned out to be on us so far? We have fallen victims to the merciless fate until today, and now is an opportunity to get out of our wretched living conditions with this divine being fairly helping us with her boon!

The man and his wife were about to utter something in haste when the fairy suddenly interrupted them and said, “No! Not in haste!” She warned them and said, “I will grant you three wishes to start a new life marked by happiness and prosperity! I will be back in three days to fulfil your wishes! Plan something good that will change your entire lives!”

With these words, the fairy vanished from the room. The light gradually lost its glimmer and disappeared and darkness prevailed as usual inside the hut.

However, this rare phenomenon gave rise to the hope and aspirations of the couple, as both were now confident that they would lead a better life like others in their surroundings. Interestingly enough, both of them were reminding each other of the three wishes that the fairy would grant them in three days. Their joy knew no bounds. Both were contemplating their forthcoming glory and prosperity. 

So one evening they were sitting by the fireplace with the wife frying some potatoes for dinner. Unaware of the warning given by the fairy regarding the three wishes, the wife said, “How delicious would it be if we only had a luscious sausage and fried it together with these potatoes?” No sooner had the wife said that a sumptuous-looking sausage appeared on the frying pan and frittered and cracked in all corners, turning into a succulent brown colour. 

Oblivious to the first wish, both of them started feasting on the potatoes and then sausage. Both of them were on cloud nine that their first wish had been fulfilled! However, the husband suddenly realising his mistake was furious with his wife’s stupidity for not being careful about the wish that his wife had asked for. 

To this the man got terribly exasperated with his wife and scolded her in cacophony, saying, "You woman! How could you be so stupid to go for this lousy sausage instead of asking for some life-changing boons?”

In extreme exasperation and disappointment, he shouted at his wife, “Now I would like to see this stupid sausage stick on the tip of your nose!” That said, the second wish was also fulfilled. The sausage sprung out of the pan and got stuck on the nose tip of the wife. 

At this, the cacophony between the husband and wife escalated further, with each blaming the other on the outcome of their wishes. The poor wife struggled in vain to get the sausage detached from the nose. The husband too was also helping his wife as much as he could. The helpless husband started muttering upon seeing his poor wife running around from one corner to the other in a state of extreme nervousness and dismay with the sausage still dangling on the top of her nose. The husband scowled around, contracting the brows in a sullen, displeased, and angry manner. 

The wife sat helplessly in one corner of the room, soaked in total despair, to see the sausage still dangling on the tip of her nose. In the midst of the already strange scenario, the man uttered, “Oh God! If only this sausage disappeared from the nose of my panicking wife!”

Said, done! The sausage disappeared from the 

nose, much to the relief of both the wife and her husband, without knowing that the third wish had also been fulfilled.

On the third day, the fairy appeared again in their dark, ran shackled hut. “Folks! I had promised you three wishes, and you have already asked for them!” She said and added, “Both of you  wanted a succulent sausage on the frying pan together with the potatoes; it was getting attached to the nose, and you wanted to get rid of the sausage from the nose. So, the three wishes I had granted to you so willingly so that you could add an extra layer of joy and purpose to your lives turned out to be nothing except your forsaken life and wretched circumstances in this hut as before!”

The fairy disappeared 

“Anyone who is incapable of taking into account the sensible opportunities and using them accordingly with wisdom and intelligence and fails to judge them in terms of changing the course of life and living conditions should face the same fate like you both husband and wife have undergone! “

The fairy went on: “Hence, the one-time opportunity in life should not be determined only by frying potatoes with a sausage like your stupid couple had wished for!”

The fairy then disappeared with the hut turning dark and shabby again as it had been before and never returned again! Have we learnt something out of this story?

 This author has translated this German story into English. The story is adapted from a collection of his “Kalendergeschichten,” or Calendar Stories.

As was the custom of the day, Hebel would travel from one place to another, narrating the social stigma of the time in the form of stories much to the entertainment and amusement of the large public crowds. His stories, dealing mainly with the daily lives of the people in mediaeval Germany, are cherished by all strata of society even today

(Chand is former Director and German Language Instructor at Goethe-Institute Kathmandu and Goethe Zentrum, Kathmandu.)