Hukumusume fairy tale collection > Story Top > Classical stories of the world

Heaven’s Coins
(Grimm Fairy Tales)

Translation　ちいさな翻訳屋さん

Japanese　←→　Japanese ＆ English　←→　English

　Once upon a time, there lived a little girl.

　Since both her father and mother just passed away, what she had were only the clothes she was wearing and a slice of bread a kind stranger gave her.

　As she didn’t have anybody but God she could rely on, she made her way to a field.

　Then, a poor man came to her and said.

“Please give me something to eat. I’m starving.”

　However, she had only a slice of bread.

　She knew that if she gave it to the man, she wouldn’t have anything else to eat herself.

　But she kindly offered this bread to the man and said.

“God bless you.”

　And when she went further, a crying child came up to her and said.

“Cold! My head is cold! Please give me something to put on my head.

　Then the girl handed her hat to the child and said.

“God bless you.”

　As she kept on going, there was a child who was shivering without any coat on.

　While taking off her coat and giving it to the child, the girl said,

“God bless you.”

　As she went a lot further, she gave her skirt to another little girl who begged her for it and said,

“God bless you.”

　Finally, she arrived in the forest.

　It had already got dark out there.

　There was another child approached her and begged for her underwear.

　If she had given her underwear, she would be naked.

　For that reason, she hesitated for a moment but she thought to herself,

“It’s so dark that nobody can see me naked.”

　Then she ended up taking off her underwear and giving it to the child and said,

“God bless you.”

　The standing girl, wearing nothing on, found some stars floating down from the sky.

　Later, those stars turned into sparkling gold coins.

　She must have naked, but she actually found herself in fancy clothes.

“Oh, God! Thank you.”

　She lived happily ever after with the coins she picked up.

The end

(Click here to return)