Daily story, January 16, 2025

There was once a miller who boasted around the kingdom that his daughter could spin straw into gold. The king sent soldiers and had the miller and his daughter brought to the castle. There he had prepared a huge room full of straw. “Spin this into gold for me,” he said, “or I will have your heads.”

The next day, the king returned and found the straw woven into beautiful crowns. “These are not gold,” he said. “No,” said the miller, “but look how much more like gold they are today than they were yesterday. But we cannot spin gold with so little straw and just one wheel. We will need much, much more.”

So the king sent his soldiers to gather more straw, and more spinning wheels. The next day, the miller presented him with a single gold coin. “This coin would not even buy the spinning wheels I provided you,” said the king. “No,” said the miller, “but this is just the beginning. We will need much more straw, and all the spinning wheels in the kingdom, perhaps more. And also some gold would help.”

So the king sent his soldiers to bring all the straw and all the spinning wheels in the kingdom, and he set the people of the kingdom to work building more spinning wheels, and he opened up his treasury to the miller. The miller, who always seemed to be a day or two away from finally spinning all that straw into gold, became rich and powerful and loved. Outside the castle window, a funny little man named Rumplestiltskin watched, waiting for the day the king’s patience ran out.