Matilda the Shrewd

Matilda lives in the pastures below the mountain, where the King, Wizard #5710, likes to spend his Springs. She has lived a simple life, but always dreamed of more.

While grazing in a far away sunflower field, she bites on a leaf that tastes like metal. She digs with her hooves until she finds a bag of gold buried under the soil.

“I should bring this to the King!” Matilda thinks. “He will reward me for my loyalty.” She pulls the bag out of the ground, and tosses it on her back. But, as she trots towards the castle, she feels the weight of the bag and reconsiders her plan.

“The king is so rich, he has more money than he needs. I am just a poor pony and I need this gold more than him.”

Matilda, however, is no silly pony. She knows the risks she will run if anyone finds out about her luck. She can trust herself to be cautious, but how about her stablemaster? He will certainly notice if she returns to the stable with a bag of gold.

She thinks about it over and over, until she finds a solution and divides the gold into three piles.

She takes the first pile and buries the coins as if they were seeds; she takes the second pile and hangs the coins on a tree as if they were cherries; she takes the third pile and tosses the coins in the lake as if they were mussels.

Matilda, then, heads back to the stables with a golden coin in her mouth. When her master sees her, he tries to grab the coin but she runs and lets him chase her to the sunflowers field. When the stablemaster finally catches up to her, he finds himself surrounded by gold: in the ground, on the trees, down the lake. Everywhere he looks there is gold!

“I must-a take dis gold to da King! He gon’ make me lord or something’”, says the stablemaster. He gathers all the gold and carries it back to the stables on Matilda’s back.

Fearing that a thief would find his fortune, the stablemaster hides the gold in Matilda’s stall and heads to the castle.

Left alone with the gold, Matilda takes it to town and buys the most valuable trinkets she can find: a pompous foulard with golden needlework, protective sunglasses, and an oak pipe that belonged to a renowned wizard. She then heads back home and waits for her master.

When the stablemaster returns, he is followed by two kingsmen. “I told ye. I found da gold ov’r them sun fields. ‘Twas buried like seeds, and up in the trees like some fruit. Even down below the water, like seafood”. The guards eye each other with a questioning look.

The stablemaster hands them the bag. “Here, see? Gold so shiny it makes yer eyes close.”

The guards peek inside the bag to find a bunch of worthless junk. A pipe, some glasses, and a napkin. “Very funny, mister. Shall we take you to the king for wasting our time?”

While the kingsmen head back to the castle, the stablemaster studies the bag worriedly. He then leaves it on the ground and heads back home to his wife, concerned for his own mind. “I should spend more time with people than animals”.

Matilda can finally enjoy her trinkets, thinking that no one will know their true value.

Entered by: 0xaC3B…074F and preserved on chain (see transaction)