The Real Story

The Real Story

So you think you know this story. Most likely they just fooled you with a sweet version of it. Probably, by now you are ready to learn the truth. So, let me tell you the events as they really happened.

Krechnitz is a tiny village at the edge of a large and dark forest in the middle of Eastern Europe. A river ran through the middle of the village. At best of times Krechnitz was home to no more than two hundred families. Most of them were followers of the court of the Vishnitzer Rebbe. Also, all of them were really poor.

On the outskirts of town lived a family unlike any other. They were so poor they only had one bed, which they had to share between the four of them. They were most unfortunate. However, the two children were the luckiest kids in the world. They just didn’t know it yet.

From what I know, Mentl and Shmentl were quite a few years apart. Mentl was 11 years old and he had chocolate brown hair with bright blue eyes that shimmered in the light. Lets just put it this way: he was tall and handsome. His younger sister Shmentl was 7 years old. She had rosy cheeks and freckles all across her face. The thing that really made her stand out however was her long, fiery red hair!

The problem with Mentl and Shmentl was that they had set their minds to be pure evil!

They made a plan that they thought would make them powerful! Their plan was… to throw everyone’s food and water into the river running through the village. And so they did, without realizing they were not going to have any food for themselves either. All there was left in town was a single loaf of bread. This gave them another idea… let’s get rid of our parents, so we can have the bread all to ourselves! We can’t stand the idea of having parents anyway so it won’t be such a loss.

Obviously, this made their parents very sad. Time was running out for the parents to teach their children a lesson. Mentl and Shmentl came up with the plan to take their parents for a trip in to the dark forest. After sunset they would run back home, leaving their parents all alone, in the night, in the dark. They just needed to leave a trail of thorns in order to find their way back home. Now of course, the parents knew both this part of the fairy tale and the forest quite well, so they were not too concerned. Instead, they decided to lure the kids towards the house of the Fairy of Goodness.

The house of the Fairy of Goodness was entirely made of lollypops….Any kid would be excited, but not Mentl and Shmentl. You might have guessed by now these kids were different, very different. They must have been the only children in the world hating lollypops! The kids tried to trick the Fairy by pretending to be good, the Fairy was tricking the kids by pretending to be evil! “Hello, little children…Let me guess, you want to get rid of your parents, no? HAHAHAHAA!!!!” she shrieked. “Well, uh, yes” the kids answered. “Well, what are you waiting for? Give them a lollypop!” The children gave their parents a lollypop and right after the first lick the parents pretended to fall asleep. “Wow”, said Mentl, “how long will they sleep?” The Fairy answered “for a thousand years! In the meantime you can stay here, but don’t try to steal the treasure!” “The treasure?” the children asked? “We want that treasure!!” “If you want my treasure” said the Fairy, “you have to do exactly as I tell you, ask no questions!” “Agreed!” said the children. “Promise?” asked the Fairy, “promise!” said the children. “Alright, here is your first task”, said the Fairy. “I need you to go to the kitchen and wash all the dishes. I didn’t clean anything for three years and you have twenty-four hours to do the job!” The kids were about to say no, but that would make them loose the treasure….The kitchen was so dirty that they first had to clean the floor and the table and the sink before they could even start with the dishes. Because the kitchen had no running water they first had to go out to the river to get water, make a fire to warm it up and then start cleaning. Before they had finished the dishes they had to go back and forth to the river three times. They worked very hard, stayed up the whole night and just before running out of time finished cleaning the last plate. By now, they were totally exhausted and wanted to sleep. “Well”, said the Fairy “you can sleep, but then you first have to swipe the bedroom floor, clean the mattress and wash the sheets!”. “What??” asked the children we never did that!” “Do I hear you protest? Do you want to lose the treasure?” asked the Fairy. So, Mentl and Shmentl knew what to do and although they could hardly keep their eyes open fetched another pail of water and cleaned the bedroom floor and washed and dried the sheets. By the time they were ready to fall asleep they were hungry from all the hard work and asked the Fairy for some food. “You think this is a restaurant?” asked the Fairy. “If you want food, you go to the kitchen and make it yourself!” “But, we have never done this before” cried the children. “You want to lose the treasure?” asked the Fairy. And so Mentl and Shmentl made a fire, found some mushrooms in the forest and made themselves some soup.

By now, you must have gotten the picture. The Fairy made them work and work and work for weeks and weeks. Seven weeks to tell you the truth. And then, when the Fairy thought the time had come she asked them if they were ready for the final test. “Mentl and Shmentl, are you ready? Here comes the final and most difficult test of all. No one has ever succeeded yet…” “Of course” said Mentl full of confidence “anything you say!” The Fairy told them to put on their shoes and walk back to Krechnitz and not come back! “But…” tried Mentl “how does that make sense?” “Are you trying to question me Mentl?” asked the Fairy “do you want to lose the treasure?” And so the children went back in to the forest on the long walk back home.

When they came back to Krechnitz things had changed quite a lot. All the people of Krechnitz had left since there was no more food. Mentl and Shmentl had thrown everything in to the river. Their little house was dusty and dark and still and quite miserable. It made them feel lonely and scared. They missed the Fairy and to tell you the truth, they missed their Mommy and Daddy…

Without wasting a minute, they ran back in to forest and didn’t stop until they came back to the lollypop house. “We don’t want to be alone, we don’t want to be without you and we don’t want to leave our sleeping Mommy and Daddy behind! We don’t care about your treasure anymore! Please, don’t send us away” they cried, as the tears were rolling down their freckled cheeks. “You have just found the treasure!” said the Fairy of Goodness. “Go kiss your Mommy and Daddy on their cheeks so they will wake up. The biggest treasure in life is to feel love and I think you have learned this lesson today”.

The kids ran to their parents who had been waiting for them all this time. And they hugged and kissed and celebrated with the Fairy who had made a beautiful dinner with soup and chicken and potatoes and salad and Kugel for desert! The next day they said farewell and walked back to Krechnitz.

Today Krechnitz is a big city with more then one hundred thousand Jews and five big synagogues. And everybody fondly remembers the story of how Reb Mentl and Froome Shmentl had worked hard to make Krechnitz the most beautiful community of the middle of Eastern Europe!