Previous story (17) - Till Eulenspiegel - Next story (19)
The 18th story tells of how Eulenspiegel bought bread following the saying "To whom has bread, bread is
given"[1]
Faithfulness provides bread. After Eulenspiegel had swindled the physician, he came to Halberstadt[2]. He wandered around the marketplace and saw that it was a cold, hard winter. So he thought to himself: "It's a hard winter and the wind blows bitter cold... and you've often heard them say 'To him who has bread, bread is given.'" And he bought two shillings worth of bread, got a table and set up shop outside St. Stephen's cathedral. He put his bread on sale and performed his tricks until a dog came, stole a loaf from the table and ran off into the churchyard. Eulenspiegel ran after the dog. In the meantime, a sow with ten piglets came and knocked over the table. Each animal took a leaf of bread in its mouth and ran off with it.
So Eulenspiegel started laughing and said: "Now it's quite clear to me that those words are falsehood, when one says that he who has bread is given more." And he continued: "Oh, Halberstadt, Halberstadt, rightly you are named thus. Your beer and food taste good but your moneybags are made of worthless pig leather." And he got up and headed for Braunschweig.
Translator's notes:
[1] I can't come up with any equivalent to the saying in English. It should be taken as meaning that he who has something gets more of it.
[2] The city's name can be read as "half town"
All in all, this story is more anecdotal and apocryphal than most others. I'm not sure what to make of it myself. If this were an anthology and not a complete work, I'd have left it out.
English translation created for E2 from the original by Hermann Bote at the German project Gutenberg.