The Twelve Idle Servants (Grimm)

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😴

Brothers Grimm

The Twelve Idle Servants

ger. Die zwölf faulen Knechte · 1812

Summary of a Fairy Tale

The original takes ~5 min to read

Microsummary

Twelve servants boasted about their laziness. One ate and slept all day, another neglected his horse, and a third let rain bore a hole in his skull. Others nearly starved or were run over by a cart.

Division into sections is editorial.

The first lazy servants: eating, sleeping, and avoiding the master

Twelve servants gathered on the grass after doing nothing all day, boasting about their extraordinary laziness. The first servant declared that caring for his body was his principal work. He ate four meals daily and drank even more, sleeping until midday and deliberately ignoring his master's calls.

🍽️

The First Servant — male servant, lazy glutton who eats four meals a day, sleeps until midday, ignores his master's calls, moves very slowly.

What is your laziness to me, I have to concern myself about mine own? The care of my body is my principal work, I eat not a little and drink still more.

The second servant was responsible for caring for a horse but left the bit in its mouth constantly. When he didn't want to feed the animal, he simply claimed it had already been fed. Instead of proper grooming, he slept for four hours in the oat-chest, then barely moved his foot over the horse's body, calling this adequate care.

🐴

The Second Servant — male servant, horse caretaker who neglects his duties, sleeps in the oat-chest for four hours, barely tends to the horse.

Elaborate schemes to avoid work

The third servant demonstrated extreme dedication to avoiding effort. He had laid himself in the sun and fallen asleep, refusing to move even when it began to rain. His commitment to inactivity was so complete that he endured a heavy downpour that pulled hair from his head and created a hole in his skull, which he simply patched with a plaster.

🌧️

The Third Servant — male servant, extremely lazy man who refuses to move even in heavy rain, got a hole in his skull from neglecting shelter.

The fourth servant had perfected the art of delegation through manipulation. Before undertaking any task, he would loiter for an hour to supposedly save his strength, then begin very slowly while asking if anyone could help him. He would then let others do the main work while he merely observed, though even watching proved too taxing for him.

⏰

The Fourth Servant — male servant, procrastinator who wastes an hour before starting work, manipulates others to do his tasks while he watches.

If I am to undertake a piece of work, I first loiter about for an hour that I may save up my strength. After that I begin quite slowly, and ask if no one is there who could help me.

The fifth servant was assigned to clean manure from the horse's stable. His method involved moving extremely slowly, only half-raising anything on his fork before resting for a quarter-hour. He considered it sufficient achievement to remove just one cartful of manure per day, declaring he had no intention of killing himself with work.

🧹

The Fifth Servant — male servant, stable cleaner who works extremely slowly, takes quarter-hour rests, barely manages one cartful of manure per day.

Extreme physical laziness and its consequences

The sixth servant claimed he was unafraid of work but demonstrated this by lying down for three weeks without once removing his clothes. He cared so little about his appearance that he let his shoes fall off his feet. When climbing stairs, he would drag one foot slowly after the other and count the remaining steps to determine where he must rest.

👞

The Sixth Servant — male servant, extremely lazy man who lies down for three weeks without changing clothes, lets shoes fall off, counts steps to rest.

The seventh servant moved so slowly that crawling would have been faster. He required four sturdy men to push him with all their might to make any progress. Once, when he found six men sleeping on a bed, he lay down with them and slept so deeply that when they wanted to take him home, they had to carry him.

😴

The Seventh Servant — male servant, moves so slowly that crawling is faster, needs four men to push him, sleeps so deeply others must carry him home.

The eighth servant ironically considered himself the only active fellow among them. When a stone lay before him, he wouldn't lift his legs to step over it but would lie down on the ground instead. If he became wet and covered with mud, he remained lying until the sun dried him, occasionally turning only so the sun could shine on him properly.

🌞

The Eighth Servant — male servant, won't step over stones, lies in mud until sun dries him, considers himself the only active one ironically.

Dismissed servants and final confessions

The ninth servant had reached such extremes of laziness that he nearly died of hunger because bread was placed before him but he was too idle to take it. A jug stood nearby, but he found it too big and heavy to lift, preferring to bear thirst rather than make the effort.

🍞

The Ninth Servant — male servant, too lazy to reach for bread and nearly died of hunger, won't lift heavy jugs, lies motionless like a log all day.

The tenth servant suffered physical consequences from his laziness. He had a broken leg and swollen calf because when someone came with a cart, the wheels went over him. Though he could have drawn his legs back, he didn't hear the cart approaching due to midges humming about his ears and crawling through his nose and mouth.

🦵

The Tenth Servant — male servant, has broken leg and swollen calf from cart accident, too lazy to move legs away from danger, ignores midges crawling on him.

Today the bread was before me, but I was too idle to take it, and nearly died of hunger! Moreover a jug stood by it, but it was so big and heavy that I did not like to lift it up.