The Three Foolish Wishes
Long long ago, in the age before television, an old woodcutter lived in the middle of the forest with his wife. One day while cutting down trees he heard a small voice crying for help. Following the sound he came upon a small fairy trapped under a fallen branch with a fox coming up to her menacingly. With a shout he ran at the fox scaring it away. He then carefully lifted the branch from off the fairy. The fairy immediately flew up and hovered in front of him.
“Thank you for your assistance” she said. “I wish to give you a reward, what do you wish?”
Realizing the fairies magic would grant him anything he wanted he was at a loss as what to wish for.
“I don’t know” he said honestly.
“It’s a big question and I understand you need time to think about it” the fairy replied. “I must leave but I will leave a spell on you that the next three things you wish for will come true. This way you will have all the time you need.”
With that she waved her wand in his direction and flew off. The woodcutter went home to his wife to tell her of their good fortune. As soon as she heard of it the woodcutters wife was overjoyed.
“So what are you going to wish for?” she asked.
“I’m going to think about it very carefully first” the farmer said. “While I’m doing that could you go fix my lunch?”
“Certainly, I’ll get you your usual piece of bread”
“This is a special occasion, lets fry up a sausage.”
“We’re all out, you ate the last one a few days ago”
“Thats disappointing, I wish we had a sausage to eat” the woodcutter said without thinking.
With that a single sausage appeared in his hand.
“You fool!” The wife screeched at him. “You wasted a wish on a single sausage!”
“Don’t yell at me woman” the man yelled back. “It was an accident!”
An argument erupted between them with the wife berating him about the sausage which continued until the farmer got so angry he yelled “I wish that sausage was on your nose!”
Of course with those words the sausage flew up and balanced itself on her nose. They were unable to remove the sausage by any means until in despair the woodcutter said “I wish there was no sausage on your nose”. Causing it to vanish and leaving them no better nor worse then what they started with.