Folk tales are often about the needs and desires of ordinary people - and many German folk tales are about attempts to get rich through assorted dubious money-making schemes. I'll share one of my favorite tales on this topic, and I am curious what other such "Get Rich Quick" folk tales you know from around the world!
The Infernal Trousers
A poor farmer once lived close to the famous Lüderich mountain, in a small village near the Sülz, which is a tributary of the Agger river. This farmer did not even have the slightest stroke of luck in his life. Once, he complained about this to an old friend of his, who lived on the other side of this small forest stream, and for whom, in contrast to the poor farmer, every effort turned into the greatest fortune, and who had become the owner of a significant estate and a rich man. After all sorts of well-meaning admonishments, which the poor man was not content with, the rich man finally promised to help him and make him prosperous in short order.
It can readily be imagined that this promise sounded good to the ears, and likewise that this increased the tenacity of the petitioner even further. After the rich man had hesitated for some time and looked around to all sides to ensure that nobody was listening to them, he pulled an old pair of trousers out of his wardrobe, handed them to his old friend, and commented that he had now gained the basis for his new fortune. The poor man took the trousers, looked at them from all sides, and shook his head while in thought, as if he had worries that his friend might have had a few screws loose.
But the rich man did not let himself get distracted. He put a thaler into the pocket of the old, now very unfashionable piece of clothing, and asked the friend to check the next morning whether the thaler might have duplicated itself. “The duplication”, as he explained, “will continue as long as the pocket will bear it, and you don’t have to do anything other than removing your profit in order to ensure that the seams will not burst. Furthermore, you will need to clean a small bottle which contains a small live animal every Sunday. This bottle, as you can feel, is found in the other pocket of these marvelous trousers.”
The poor man still doubted the truth of this explanation, and believed that his friend merely wanted to prank him. But since the rich man did not cease to be serious, and the petitioner indeed felt the small bottle in one pocket and the thaler in the other, he thought that this prank might not have been so unfriendly after all. He thus carefully rolled the trousers together, hid them beneath his clothes, and then gave his regards to his friend and went into his run-down abode.
It had become late at this point. He thus threw the trousers on a chair, undressed, and slept until it became bright in the morning. When he dressed, he saw the old trousers on the chair which had been gifted to him. Curious, he reached into the pocket, and verified that the coin which his friend had put inside had indeed doubled, and each of the coins were as heavy and as crisply stamped as if they had come fresh out of the mint.
There could be no objection to such a result, but it was possible that his friend had pulled some kind of sleight of hand on him. He thus carefully searched the marvelous piece of clothing once more, folded it, and locked it away in his wardrobe, whose key he pocketed. The entire day the poor man was plagued by curiosity and anticipation, and he went to his wardrobe as often as he could do so without being observed in order to verify that it had not been opened, that the strange gift was locked away undisturbed, that the two thalers were still located within the pocket. The trousers did not vanish, the thalers really stayed where they were.
No matter how long the time until evening seemed to be, it arrived nevertheless and so did the night afterwards. And when checked early in the morning, the miraculous power of the trousers had proven themselves again, and now four instead of two weighty, shiny, freshly minted thalers could be found!
Now legerdemain could be dismissed! The poor man was consoled, and he stood on the precipice of assured wealth. The thalers grew for him like mushrooms tended to grow in the forest, and now he ought to be overjoyed for his fortune. But, no matter how great his joy was in the first moments of success, this wealth came with a gloomy companion which he had not known heretofore. For when the doubt about the potency and secret power of the pocket was eliminated, another doubt began to stir in his mind. For might the usage of the marvelous trousers harm his soul, and the money and the strange animal in the little bottle be lures of the Evil Enemy which would pull him into the pit of Hell despite his wealth? These worries only increased when he pulled out the little bottle and held it up to the light of day. Then he beheld a small creature which was not dissimilar to a toad, but it had a vaguely human head. It merrily capered around in the well-sealed space it was imprisoned in.
While under these worries, day and night waned. Previously, the poor man had always slept without disturbance, but since he had been on the path of wealth, he became acquainted with insomnia and deeper anxieties. With the new morning, he found that the contents of the pocket had doubled again, and the sum now amounted to eight thalers. Now the budding rich man was overcome by a fear which bordered on despair. As he could not find any way out no matter where he looked, he resigned himself to going to the priest in order to confess his strange predicament under the seal of the confessional. But here, as they say, he came out of the frying pan into the fire.
The priest was of a conscientious nature. He admonished the poor man that he might as well run into the Devil’s clawed embrace if he kept the God-damned trousers any longer. Now even more terrified, the man went back home again to his wardrobe, looked at the beautiful, shiny silver money, and then observed the animal in the small bottle, which merrily jumped around as if it enjoyed the doom of the unfortunate man. Sighing, he took the trousers which now had become heavier, folded them, put them beneath his jacket, and went to his old friend on the other side of the river.
He found the latter at home, managed to speak to him in private, and immediately and fervently pleaded with him to take the trousers back - for instead of establishing his fortune, they made him deeply unhappy. It did not help that he was now called a craven coward and a fool, and neither admonishments nor mockery would lessen his fears. Finally, the friend revealed to him that once he had accepted the trousers, he would have to keep them forevermore. He could not return them because they would follow him by themselves if he walked away.
When the anxious man would not listen to any arguments and would not believe the attachment of the trousers, he went out of the door and into the yard. But to his considerable dread, he saw that the piece of clothing - which he had thrown sourly on the friend’s table - had followed him without any external assistance. It already floated next to his side and accompanied him like a faithful hound tended to accompany its master.
Devastated, the man stood still, let the other one fold the trousers for him and push them under his arm, and then, sighing, he bade his farewells. During the night he was lying as if he was feverish. He already believed himself to have fallen to infernal forces, saw devilish grimaces stare at him and reach for him with gargantuan claws from every corner. When he examined the enchanted piece of clothing, he saw that the number of thalers had doubled once again.
He was overcome with fear for his soul, ran to the priest again, and asked him for assistance. He explained that he had tried to divest himself from the trousers, but the piece of clothing would not let him be and had pursued him relentlessly. But the priest did not seem to be a beginner when it came to magical things, and did not let himself be distracted by the fearful account. He comforted him and assured him that he could still be saved with a few verses as long as he had not spent any of the magical money.
Upon saying this, the priest opened the Bible, wrote a relevant passage from it on a piece of paper the size of a playing card, folded it while muttering something, and told the man seeking assistance that he should put this piece of paper into the pocket containing the small bottle as soon as he was home.
Consoled, the farmer now hurried back to his home, and did not delay in immediately making the attempt. It was in the morning around eleven o’clock when he took the trousers from the wardrobe and carefully pushed the piece of paper into the indicated pocket. And what a miracle! As soon as the letter had reached the bottom, the trousers started to tremble and move and cracked in all of their seams. Then they rose up from the table and floated through the chamber. Now they moved towards a window, which was flung open as if a strong wind was moving through them. When the trousers now flew through the window, the poor man took heart again, hurriedly closed it, ran out of the front door, and clearly saw how the trousers hurried straight towards the place where he had fetched them. He observed how the legs walked rapidly through the air, as if invisible limbs were within the trouser legs. Soon they were floating high above the forest stream and vanished behind its thickets.
The narrator was unable to provide any information on where the enchanted trousers might have wandered. Perhaps they returned to the rich man beyond the Sülz river, perhaps they have been caught by another collector of antiques, or perhaps they still circle around the Earth.
Source: Müller, A. Siegburg und der Siegkreis. Seine Sagen und seine Geschichte von den ältesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart. 1858, p. 18ff.
