One night he went to bed sad, without
finishing a repair job he had begun.
In the morning he found the job done.

During the day he set out all the
tools and material necessary to make
a new pair of shoes for a rich customer.

"Tomorrow morning, when it will be
sunny and bright, I will begin working
on them," he thought. But the morning
after, instead of the leather he had
left thenight before, the shoemaker
was very surprised to find a beautiful
pair of brand new shoes. Later on in
the day, the customer went by the shop
to see how his new shoes were coming
along. When he found a very nice pair
of shoes ready, he was very happy and
paid the shoemaker twice the price
they had agreed upon. The shoemaker
was very confused and wondered what
had happened.

That night, he left out some more
leather and the next morning he found
another shiny and perfect pair of
new shoes. These shoes were sold at
an even higher price. Now the
shoemaker left out leather and tools
to his mysterious helper every night,
and, every morning, he found a new
pair of shoes. Pretty soon, the
shoemaker was able to save a good
sum of money. When the shoemaker's
wife noticed all the money the
shoemaker had saved, she grew
suspicious and demanded an explanation.
When she was informed of the unusual
nocturnal occurrences, she proposed:

"Let's wait until nightfall.
We will hide and find out what's happening."
And so the shoemaker and his wife
hid and, around midnight, saw two
elves sneak into the shoemaker's
shop. The quick and skilled elves made
a new pair of shoes in a flsh. It
was winter and the elves, dressed
in ragged clothes, shivered while
they worked.

"Poor fellows! They must be very
cold," the shoemaker's wife
whispered to her husband.
"Tomorrow I will make
them two heavy wool jackets. That
way they will be warmer and maybe,
instead of one pair of shoes, they
will make two!"

The following midnight, next to the
leather, the two elves found two
elegant red jackets with gold buttons.
They put on the jackets and were very
happy.They danced shouting:

"What beautiful jackets! We'll never
be cold again." But when one of the
elves said: "Let's get to work now,"
the other answered: "Work? What for?
With two jackets like these we are
rich. We will never have to work
again."

The two elves left the shop of the
astonished shoemaker and his even
more puzzled wife and were never
seen again.