Why the Sea is Salty

Once there were two brothers. One brother was a poor farmer. He worked in the fields, and when the weather was bad, he had no food. But he was kind and worked a lot. The other brother was a rich man who worked on a ship. He was not kind and he often cheated people. At this time, there was no salt in the sea, so he travelled to other countries to get salt. He brought the salt back and the King paid him lots of money.

One winter, the weather was very bad. It rained and rained, and the poor brother had no food. He went to his rich brother and said, ‘Dear brother, I know that you work a lot for your money. But please, we have no food. Can you give me just a small piece of food? I will do anything you want.’

The rich brother hated giving things for free, so he said, ‘Take this piece of ham and go to Hell.’

‘Thank you, dear brother!’ said the poor brother.

As he had said that he would do whatever his brother wanted, he now had to go to Hell. So, he walked all day, and finally, he came to a dark house. Outside, there was an old man with a big white beard.

‘Is this Hell?’ asked the poor man.

‘Yes!’ said the old man. ‘Ah, I see you have ham. That is very good. Hell has no meat, so the Devil will want that very much. He has a special millstone on his door. If he wants your meat, then ask for his millstone.’

When the poor man went into the house, the Devil said, ‘Ah, is that ham? I have not eaten ham in so long! What do you want for it? I will give you anything. Here, I have gold. Or maybe you want a beautiful wife? I could also make you very strong.’

‘Hmm,’ said the poor man. ‘No, I don’t want those things. I want that millstone on the door.’

‘Are you sure?’ said the Devil. ‘It is only an old millstone. Gold is much better.’

‘No, I will have the millstone.’

‘Fine,’ said the Devil.

The man gave him the ham and the Devil ate it with his fingers. Then, he took the millstone off the door and gave it to the poor man, who went home.

At first, he didn’t understand why the millstone was special. But, he had a bit of wheat, so he ground it in the millstone. While he ground, he was very hungry and thought about lots of food: bread and cheese and soup and salad… Normally, millstones ground out the flour. But this millstone did not grind out the flour, it ground out the food the man was thinking about!

‘Amazing!’ said the man. ‘Thank you, dear millstone.’

When he said the words, the millstone stopped making food.

‘My dear wife! My dear child!’ said the man. ‘Come, we will have dinner.’

He ground out lots of lovely food. The only thing the millstone could not grind out was meat. But that didn’t matter. They had lots of food and they ate well. After the man ground the food, he always said, ‘Thank you, dear millstone,’ and it stopped making food.

A few days later, the poor man wanted to say thank you to his brother. If his brother had not told him to go to Hell, he would not have the millstone. So, he invited him to dinner.

‘Hah!’ said the rich man. ‘What are we going to eat, air?’

But when he saw all the food, he was very surprised.

‘How do you have all this food?’ he asked. ‘I thought you were poor.’

‘Ah, dear brother,’ said the poor man. ‘I have a special millstone. You grind wheat and it can make anything. Only, it cannot make meat.’

‘Can you grind salt with it?’ asked the rich brother.

‘Salt? Do you like salty food, brother? Yes, you can grind salt with it. But you can’t eat just salt!’

‘Brother,’ said the rich man, ‘I will buy your millstone! How much do you want?’

The poor man was surprised. ‘I am not selling it. Anyway, you do not need it. You have lots of money.’

‘Ah, but I am old,’ said the rich man. ‘My back hurts and I don’t like working. I always have to travel to other countries to get salt. If this millstone can make me salt, I can bring it to the King, and I won’t have to travel.’

‘But that is cheating,’ said the poor man. ‘If the King knew, he would not be happy.’

‘It does not matter!’ said the rich man. ‘I will give you ten thousand pounds.’

Ten thousand pounds was a lot of money. The poor man could not say no.

‘Fine then,’ he said.

‘Wonderful!’

So the rich man gave him ten thousand pounds and took the millstone.

The next day, the King told him to go and get salt. He had to go on his ship. If he did not, then the King would know that he was cheating. Then, the King would take his ship and the rich man liked his ship a lot.

He rode the ship into the sea and then he took out the millstone.

‘Now, make me salt!’ he said.

He started grinding wheat, and the millstone made salt.

‘Perfect!’ said the man. ‘That is lots of salt.’

But the millstone did not stop. It made mountains of salt. There was salt everywhere!

‘Stop, stop!’ said the man.

And still, the millstone ground salt. The whole ship filled up with salt.

‘No!’

The ship started to sink. The salt fell into the sea. All the men in the ship jumped out and swam back home.

‘I hate my brother!’ said the rich man.

So, the ship sank to the bottom of the sea and the millstone sank with it.

Today, the millstone sits at the bottom of the sea. It still grinds and grinds, making more and more salt and that is why the sea is salty.

Taken from: https://easystoriesinenglish.com/