A King’s Ransom

by Renate Wildermuth

A king had conquered foreign lands and demanded a new flag be made for his vast kingdom. The most prominent tailor in the country made one of the finest silks and the truest colors, with the most delicate embroidery. It did not satisfy the king, so the tailor was thrown into jail. The second most prominent tailor made an even more beautiful flag of spun silver, but he too did not satisfy the king, and was thrown into jail. The next fashioned a flag from pure gold, but it did not satisfy the king, and his fate was the same. Soon the jail was filled with weavers and tailors and craftspeople.

Finally, there was only one little shop left where an old man and woman toiled away making dye from beets and daffodils with only their granddaughter to help them. When the king came to the shop and demanded a flag, she said she would not make one. He threatened to throw her into prison, but again she told him it couldn’t be done. 

“The colors you chose will fade. The colors of my country are the truest colors,” she said.

“What are they?” he asked, suddenly curious.

“Gold you can eat and silver and rubies you can drink.”

He did not believe her.

“I will show you tomorrow. But you must dress like a poor man or you won’t be able to see them.”

The next day she took him out to a field. The king looked all over the ground but saw no gold. 

“We must cut the wheat away,” said the granddaughter. 

And so they worked alongside the harvesters and the wheat was taken to the thresher. The king searched the ground until it was dark and there was no time to return to his castle. The farmer took pity on him because he looked like a poor man and invited the king and the granddaughter to eat a simple meal with him.

“Not until I find the gold,” said the king. 

“It is inside the bread,” the granddaughter told him.

But when he cut into the loaf, he did not see it. 

“Spread the butter on it, and it will become visible,” she said. 

He saw nothing.

“Perhaps you are not poor enough yet,” said the young woman.

The king gave all his money to the farmer, which was only fair since he had eaten up all of the farmer’s bread.

“Since you could not show me the gold I could eat,” said the King, “show me the silver and rubies I can drink.”

They walked a long way through the kingdom until they stopped at a trickling brook, where old women were filling their buckets. “I don’t see silver and rubies I can drink,” said the king.

“We must help the women move the water out of the way,” replied the young woman. 

The king filled the buckets of the old women and then carried them to the little huts they lived in. But by the day’s end the brook was just as full as before. A kind old woman took pity on the king and invited him and the young woman to eat with her. She brought out an old bottle of cheap wine. Because the king had never tasted simple wine, he found it delicious and drank the whole bottle. When he awoke, he had no money and no crown, and became angry. 

“Don’t you remember you gave it away to your subjects because it was too heavy?” asked the young woman.

He stood up and instead of feeling angry he felt much lighter. And when he stepped outside the hut, he saw the golden wheat in the fields and the silver of the trickling brook and thought of the ruby-red wine. And he realized how rich he was. He freed the prisoners from the jails and turned the jails into great mills. And he gave all his money away and when he was poor enough, he went to the dye-makers and asked for their granddaughter’s hand.

“What will you give her?” they asked.

All he had left was his heart and he handed it over. The dye makers knew something about color, and they saw how red and true it was and so they agreed. And the dye makers’ granddaughter and the former king lived simply ever after.