An old man living in the countryside set out for town to trade his only possession—a horse—for something else. First, he exchanged the horse for a cow. Later, he traded the cow for a sheep, then the sheep for a goose, the goose for a hen, and finally, the hen for a sack of spoiled apples. At an inn, two men happened to overhear the old man recounting his string of trades. Amused, they made a wager: they would give him a hundred gold pounds if his wife did not get angry when she heard what he had done. Together, they went to the old man’s home. As he told his wife the story, she smiled and responded with delight at every step: “Well done!”, “That’s even better!”, “What a clever trade!” And when he finally revealed that all he had left was a sack of spoiled apples, she lit up and said she had needed apples anyway. True to their word, the two men handed over the hundred gold pounds.
This story is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, The Old Man Is Always Right. A humble, contented husband, and a wife who offers him unwavering support—surely, a home with such a couple would always be filled with peace and happiness.
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