Four Boiled Eggs

By Megan Powell

There was once a poor priest who stopped at an inn. He ate four boiled eggs, four rolls and some water. Then he told the innkeeper that he had no money, and the innkeeper shrugged. "That's all right. You can pay me back some other time when you have money."

Ten years passed, and in that time the priest became a rich man. One day he rode past the inn--he always rode in a carriage now, and never traveled on foot--and remembered the innkeeper's generosity. He got out of the coach and greeted the innkeeper. "You did me a kindness ten years ago," the priest said, "and let me have four boiled eggs, four rolls and some water to drink. Now I can repay my debt."

The innkeeper looked at the priest's fine clothes and carriage. "All right," he said. "I'll figure out the bill." And then he began to write. He figured out how many eggs would have been laid by the hens that might have hatched from the eggs the priest ate, then he figured out how many eggs would have been laid by the hens that hatched from those eggs, and so on, for ten years' worth of eggs and hens. When he finished, he had a number that was so big the priest couldn't have paid it even if he sold his carriage.

"This is crazy," the priest said.

"All right," shrugged the innkeeper. "We'll go to court."

The miserable priest made his way home. He was so upset he didn't even ride in his fine carriage, and so he passed a dirty, ragged gypsy on the street. "Why are you upset?" the gypsy asked.

"I'm ruined! An innkeeper says I owe him more money than I have, because ten years ago I couldn't pay him for four boiled eggs, four rolls and some water."

"That doesn't sound like an expensive meal."

"No, but the innkeeper says I owe him for the hens that would have hatched from those eggs, and all the eggs they would have laid, and all the hens that would have hatched...it goes on and on, and I don't know anything about the law."

"Don't worry," the gypsy said. "I'll be your lawyer."

On the day the case was to be decided, the priest went to the courthouse. The innkeeper was there, too, and all the lawyers started talking about the case. They all sided with the innkeeper and thought the priest should pay him, and maybe go to jail as well. Then the gypsy walked in, as dirty and ragged as the day the priest had met him.

"This is your lawyer?" the other lawyers asked the priest, and laughed.

"Where were you?" they asked the gypsy. "Why were you late?"

"Oh, I needed to boil some corn so I can plant it," the gypsy replied.

"That's ridiculous," the lawyers said. "How can corn grow if it's boiled?"

"How can hens hatch from boiled eggs?"

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