Once, a man was passing through a forest when he saw an elf. The man thought, ‘Hmm! I am sure he knows where to find some gold.’ Thinking so, the man started talking to the elf. However, after a few minutes of idle conversation, the man became impatient. He grabbed the elf and demanded to know where some gold was hidden. The elf got scared and took him towards a large tree. “The gold is under the tree,” he said. Now, the man did not have anything to dig the gold with. So, he tied a piece of red cloth to the plant so that he might recognize it again. Then he ran home to fetch a shovel. Within minutes, he was back at the field. But what a sight met his eyes! Every plant in the field had a piece of red cloth tied around it and the elf had vanished. The man could only curse himself for his loss.
The Elf and the Gold
