The Elves and the Shoemaker

Once upon a time, there lived a shoemaker. He was very hard-working and honest, but no matter how hard he tried, he did not earn a good living. He stitched and stitched from morning till night to make shoes to sell at the market, but he never brought home more than a few coins. Often, he and his wife didn't have enough money to buy food, so they had to go hungry.

One day, the shoemaker found that he had only one last piece of leather in his workshop, just enough for a single pair of shoes. However, he was determined not to give up. He set to work as usual, cutting the leather into pieces ready to sew them into a pair of shoes the next morning, and in the evening he felt satisfied as he closed his workshop door. Before he went to sleep, he turned to his wife to bid her goodnight, and whispered:

“Don’t you worry my dear, everything will turn out just fine.”

In his head, he gave thanks for all the good and beautiful things he had experienced that day, and fell asleep carefree. After all, he had always been taught that everything works out in the end, and so far it always had.

In the morning, the shoemaker got up with the sun and went straight to his workshop to stitch up the shoes. But when he opened the door, he couldn’t believe his eyes!

The pieces of leather he had so carefully cut and prepared were no longer lying on the work table. But what was on the table? Why, a brand new, shiny pair of shoes!

“I didn’t do this, did I?” the shoemaker wondered, scratching his head in astonishment and cautiously reaching out to…