The Stolen Farthings (Grimm)
Division into chapters is editorial.
The mysterious pale childs appearances
A father sat at dinner with his wife and children, joined by a good friend who had come to visit them. As they dined together, something extraordinary occurred when the clock struck twelve. At precisely noon, the door opened and a very pale child dressed in snow-white clothes entered the room.
The mysterious child displayed peculiar behavior - it did not look around or speak to anyone present, but went straight into the next room with purposeful determination. Soon afterwards, it returned and departed through the door again in the same quiet, deliberate manner. This strange visitation repeated itself exactly the same way on the second and third days, always occurring at the stroke of noon.
The visiting friend became increasingly curious about these appearances and finally asked the father about the identity of the beautiful child that entered the next room every day at noon. The father replied that he had never seen such a child and had no idea to whom it could belong. This response puzzled the stranger, who had clearly witnessed the child's presence multiple times.
The next day when it again came, the stranger pointed it out to the father, who however did not see it, and the mother and the children also all saw nothing
This revelation was deeply troubling - only the stranger possessed the ability to perceive the ghostly visitor.
The strangers investigation and discovery
Determined to solve this mystery, the stranger took action during the child's next appearance. He quietly approached the room door, opened it slightly, and peered inside to observe what the child was doing in private. What he witnessed was both fascinating and heartbreaking.
Then he saw the child sitting on the ground, and digging and seeking about industriously amongst the crevices between the boards of the floor, but when it saw the stranger, it disappeared
The stranger immediately reported his observations to the family, providing a detailed description of the child and its peculiar behavior. His account of the pale child searching desperately among the floorboards struck a chord of recognition with the mother, who listened with growing understanding and sorrow.
He now told what he had seen and described the child exactly, and the mother recognized it, and said, 'Ah, it is my dear child who died a month ago.'
The mother's recognition brought both relief and renewed grief to the household. The mystery of the ghostly visitor was solved, but it raised new questions about why the child's spirit could not rest in peace.
Finding the farthings and the childs final rest
Understanding now what they needed to do, the family took up the floorboards in the room where the child had been searching. Their investigation revealed the source of the spirit's unrest - hidden in the crevices between the boards, they discovered two small coins.
They took up the boards and found two farthings which the child had once received from its mother that it might give them to a poor man
The discovery revealed a tragic tale of childhood temptation and its supernatural consequences. The child had originally received these two farthings from its mother with specific instructions to give them as charity to a poor man. However, the child had been tempted by the possibility of personal pleasure, thinking it could buy itself a biscuit with the money instead. Rather than following through with either the charitable act or the selfish purchase, the child had hidden the coins and kept them secret until death.
This act of disobedience and greed had prevented the child's soul from finding peace in death, binding it to return daily at noon to search for the hidden coins. Understanding the situation, the parents immediately gave the money to a poor man, fulfilling the original charitable purpose. This act of completion brought immediate results.
The parents gave the money at once to a poor man, and after that the child was never seen again.