Frederick and Catherine

There was a married couple, the husband named Frederick and the wife named Catherine.

One day, the husband was going to work in the fields and asked his wife to prepare something delicious for his lunch.

The wife agreed.

At noon, she fried a steak and went to pour some beer.

Halfway through pouring the beer, a dog suddenly ran in and snatched the steak.

She quickly chased after it but couldn’t catch up even after running quite far.

When she returned, she found beer spilled all over the floor. In her haste to chase the dog, she had forgotten to close the valve on the beer barrel.

“Oh no! What should I do? If Frederick comes back and sees the wet floor, he’ll surely scold me.”

She had a sudden idea and took a bag of newly bought flour and sprinkled it on the floor.

“This way, it will absorb the beer, and Frederick will surely praise me for being clever.”

When her husband returned home at noon and learned about everything that happened, he said, “Good heavens! The dog taking the steak and the spilled beer are bad enough, but you wasted so much flour just to dry the floor?”

“You didn’t tell me I couldn’t do that!” she replied.

The husband realized he needed to be cautious about their property and warned her, “Listen carefully, there’s gold buried in the garden. It’s all our family’s wealth. Don’t touch it, and don’t say I didn’t tell you.”

After the husband went back to work, some dishware sellers came by.

Catherine said, “I’d love to buy, but I have no money. However, my husband buried gold in the garden, but he warned me not to touch it. If you’re willing to trade with me, you can go dig it up yourselves.”

Hearing this, the men’s eyes lit up. They eagerly went to the garden to dig up the gold, then quickly ran away, leaving behind a pile of worthless dishes.

When the husband returned and heard about this, he was nearly furious enough to spit blood.

But now wasn’t the time to scold his wife. He quickly told her to come with him to chase after the men.

Halfway through the chase, the husband suddenly remembered something and said, “Catherine, did you lock the door when we left?”

“You didn’t tell me to lock the door!”

“Do I need to tell you that? Quickly go back and lock it!”

But when the wife returned, the husband was dumbfounded to see her carrying a door on her back.

The wife said, “To prevent thieves from entering, I thought the safest way was to bring the door with me! Aren’t I clever?”

The husband slapped his forehead in frustration.

At that moment, they spotted the dishware sellers coming towards them, so they quickly climbed up a tree.

The scoundrels came to rest under the tree.

Just as they sat down, something heavy fell from the tree, frightening them into running away.

It turned out the door was too heavy for the wife to hold, and it had fallen down.

They climbed down from the tree and found that in their haste to escape, the men had left the gold behind.

They counted it, and not a single piece was missing.