A tailor's apprentice was traveling about the world in search of
work, and at one time he could find none, and his poverty was so
great that he had not a farthing to live on. Presently he met a Jew
on the road, and as he thought he would have a great deal of money
about him, the tailor thrust God out of his heart, fell on the Jew,
and said, give me your money, or I will strike you dead. Then said
the Jew, grant me my life, I have no money but eight farthings. But
the tailor said, money you have, and it shall be produced, and used
violence and beat him until he was near death. And when the Jew was
dying, the last words he said were, the bright sun will bring it to
light, and thereupon he died. The tailor's apprentice felt in his
pockets and sought for money, but he found nothing but eight
farthings, as the Jew had said. Then he took him up and carried him
behind a clump of trees, and went onwards to seek work. After he had
traveled about a long while, he found work in a town with a master
who had a pretty daughter, with whom he fell in love, and he married
her, and lived in good and happy wedlock.
After a long time when he and his wife had two children, the wife's
father and mother died, and the young people kept house alone. One
morning, when the husband was sitting on the table before the window,
his wife brought him his coffee, and when he had poured it out into
the saucer, and was just going to drink, the sun shone on it and the
reflection gleamed hither and thither on the wall above, and made
circles on it. Then the tailor looked up and said, yes, it would
like very much to bring it to light, and cannot. The woman said, o,
dear husband, and what is that, then. What do you mean by that. He
answered, I must not tell you. But she said, if you love me, you
must tell me, and used her most affectionate words, and said that no
one should ever know it, and left him no rest. Then he told her how
years ago, when he was traveling about seeking work and quite worn
out and penniless, he had killed a Jew, and that in the last agonies
of death, the Jew had spoken the words, the bright sun will bring it
to light. And now, the sun had just wanted to bring it to light, and
had gleamed and made circles on the wall, but had not been able to do
it. After this, he again charged her particularly never to tell
this, or he would lose his life, and she did promise. However, when
he had sat down to work again, she went to her great friend and
confided the story to her, and asked her never to repeat it to any
human being, but before three days were over, the whole town knew it,
and the tailor was brought to trial, and condemned. And thus, after
all, the bright sun did bring it to light.
