The Star Money

Once there was a little girl who had no mother and no father left in the whole wide world. She had no house to call her own, and no bed to sleep in. All she owned was the small dress she wore, and a single crust of bread that a kind neighbor had pressed into her hands before she set off down the road.

But this little girl had something else too — something no one could see. She had the biggest, warmest heart you could ever imagine.

The Hungry Old Man

The girl walked and walked, trusting that good things would come, for she believed with all her heart that God would take care of her. Before long, she met a poor old man sitting by the roadside, his face thin and tired.

"Please," he said softly, "I am so very hungry. Do you have anything to spare?"

The little girl looked down at her only crust of bread — the one thing standing between her and an empty stomach. She did not hesitate for even a moment. "Here," she said, placing it gently in his hands. "You need this more than I do."

And she walked on with an empty belly, but a light and happy heart.

The Shivering Children

Soon she came upon a little boy crying by the side of the road, his hands pressed to his ears. "My head is so cold," he wept, "and I have no cap to warm it."

The girl took off her own little cap, the only thing keeping her own head warm, and set it upon his. He smiled through his tears and thanked her, and she smiled back, though the wind now nipped at her bare hair.

She had not gone much farther when she met another child, this one shivering without a jacket. Without a word, the girl slipped off her own little jacket and wrapped it around the child's shoulders.

Then came a girl with no skirt to keep her legs warm — so the little girl gave away her skirt too. And then a child with nothing at all to wear — so the girl, without a moment's hesitation, took off her very last shift, the plain little garment she wore beneath everything else, and gave that away as well.

Now she stood at the edge of a dark forest with nothing left in the world. Not one scrap of clothing. Not one crumb of bread. She had given away everything she owned, down to the very last thread.

The Night Sky's Gift

The little girl stood alone beneath the great black sky, bare and shivering, but strangely unafraid. She thought to herself that surely, since she had given away everything to help others, someone would help her too.

Just then, she looked up — and saw the stars.

They were not staying still in the sky as stars usually do. One by one, they began to fall, tumbling gently down through the darkness toward her. But they did not land as fire or light. As each star touched the ground, it turned into a shining silver coin!

The little girl gasped in wonder as the coins piled up softly around her bare feet — enough silver to last her a lifetime. And most wonderful of all, when she looked down at herself, she found she was wearing a brand new shift, the finest and softest linen she had ever felt, as if the sky itself had decided that a heart so generous should never again go cold.

She gathered up the star money in the folds of her new dress, and it was said that she lived comfortably and happily for the rest of her days — for she had given away everything she had, and in return, the whole sky had opened up to give everything back to her.

Moral / Lesson: When we give freely from the heart — even when we have very little ourselves — kindness always finds its way back to us, often in the most wonderful and unexpected ways.

Attribution: Adapted from The Brothers Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1812) — public domain.