The Foolish Weaver

Once there was a weaver who had no work, so he took a job looking after a farmer’s sheep.

The farmer explained carefully what the new shepherd was to do. Last of all he said, “If a wolf or any other wild animal tries to hurt the sheep, pick up a big stone like this one,” and he picked one up to show him, “and throw a few of them at it. It will be frightened and go away.”

The weaver said that he understood, and he took the flock up to the hillsides, where the sheep grazed all day.

As it happened, that afternoon a leopard appeared. At once the weaver ran all the way home as fast as he could, to fetch the stones the farmer had shown him so that he could throw them at the leopard. By the time he got back, the sheep had all been scattered or killed.

When the farmer heard what had happened, he gave the weaver a good beating. “Weren’t there any stones on the hillside, that you had to run home for them, you senseless fellow?” he shouted. “You are not fit to look after sheep. Tomorrow you can stay at home and take care of my old mother, who is ill. Perhaps you can keep the flies off her face, even if you can’t keep wild animals away from sheep!”

So the next day the weaver stayed at home to look after the farmer’s sick old mother. She was lying on a bed outside, and the flies began to bother her badly. The weaver looked around for something to chase them away with. He remembered that he had been told to pick up the nearest stone to drive wild animals away from the flock, and he thought that this time he would show how well he could follow orders. So he grabbed the nearest stone, which was a big, heavy one, and hurled it at the flies. But, sad to say, it struck the poor old woman too, and she died. The weaver was so afraid of what the farmer would do that he ran away, and nobody in that district ever saw him again.

He walked all that day and all the next night, until at last he came to a village where a great many weavers lived together.

“Welcome!” they said. “Eat and sleep here. Tomorrow six of us are setting off to look for fresh wool to weave, and we hope you will come with us.”

“Gladly,” said the weaver.

So the next morning the seven weavers set off for the village where they could buy what they needed. On the way they had to cross a ravine. Not long before, it had been full of water, but now it was completely dry. The weavers, though, always swam across this ravine, so even though it was dry this time, they took off their clothes, tied them on their heads, and swam across the dry sand and rocks at the bottom. They reached the far side with nothing worse than scraped knees and elbows.

As soon as they were across, one of them counted everyone to make sure they were all safe. He counted everybody except himself, and then he cried out that someone was missing! That set them all counting, but every one of them made the same mistake and forgot to count himself. So they all became certain that one of their friends was missing. They ran up and down the side of the ravine, wringing their hands in great distress, looking for some sign of their lost companion.

A farmer came along and found them there, and he asked what the matter was.

“Alas!” said one of them. “Seven of us set out from the other side, and one must have drowned on the way across, because we can only find six of us!”

The farmer looked at them for a minute. Then he picked up his stick and gave each of them a good whack, counting as he went: “One! Two! Three!” and so on, all the way up to seven.

When the weavers found that there were seven of them after all, they were overwhelmed with gratitude. They thought the farmer must be a magician, since he could make seven out of what was plainly only six.

About this tale

This tale comes from The Orange Fairy Book, edited by Andrew Lang, where a note at the end says it is “From the Pushto”, the language of the Pashtun people of what is now north-western Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan.

In his preface, Lang explains that the stories in his fairy books are not word-for-word translations and that cruel and savage deeds have been softened for children. The mother’s death is brief but remains a serious consequence of the mistake.

Read the original: Andrew Lang, The Orange Fairy Book (Project Gutenberg #3027, The Foolish Weaver)

Reading guidance: Ages 9–12 with adult preview; includes dead sheep, beatings and an old woman killed by a thrown stone. The later counting joke does not undo that death.

A closer reading

The first two mistakes are different. At the pasture the weaver treats an example stone as the only usable stone; at the sickbed he transfers a method from defending sheep to removing flies without considering the person beneath them. Understanding an instruction requires knowing both its purpose and the limits of where it applies.

The dry ravine repeats that failure to adapt: the group performs a familiar action even though the water is gone. Their counting error adds another pattern. Each counts the other six correctly but omits himself, so repeated agreement does not repair the missing step.

Both farmers use blows, and the last group thanks the man who hurts them. That is the source’s harsh joke, not evidence that violence is needed to teach. The original employer also gives an inexperienced person responsibility for a vulnerable patient after a serious misunderstanding. The characters are particular fictional weavers; their mistakes do not describe the intelligence of an occupation or a people.

Try this with the story

Arrange seven counters in a circle. Choose one as the counter doing the counting and show how leaving it out produces six every time. Then count with an outside observer or by moving each counter into a checked pile. Explain why neither method requires anyone to be hurt.

Talk about it

• How is treating an example as a fixed object different from applying a rule in the wrong situation?
• What change do the weavers ignore at the ravine?
• Why does repeated counting not correct their shared mistake?
• How could the count be demonstrated without blows?

More stories like this

• The Jogi’s Punishment — another tale from the Pushto in Andrew Lang’s fairy books
• The Monkey with the Tom-tom — another funny Indian folk tale
• The Wise Jackal — another Indian tale about foolishness and good sense