Dansk / B2
Sypigen, som tabte sin nål
En ung kvinde, der arbejdede med at sy, tabte engang en synål ude på en mark. Selv om det var en lille genstand, gik tabet hende meget til hjertet.
Hun sagde, at hun hellere ville have mistet ti andre nåle end netop denne ene. Derefter gjorde hun sig al mulig umage for at finde den igen.
Eftersøgningen var dog forgæves. Hvor meget hun end anstrengte sig, kom nålen ikke til syne. Men mens hun ledte efter sin tabte nål, fandt hun en ægte perle.
Perlen var så meget værd, at hun for dens værdi kunne købe mere end en million synåle. Den nål, hun ikke kunne finde, havde dermed ført hende til noget langt mere værdifuldt.
Et beskedent tab er ofte årsag til en stor gevinst.
English summary · includes the ending
A young woman who sews loses a needle in a field. She is deeply upset by the loss and says she would rather have lost ten other needles than this particular one. The story does not explain why she values it so highly.
She makes every effort to find the needle again, but her search fails. However hard she looks, the small object remains out of sight. While searching for it, she discovers something quite different: a genuine pearl.
The pearl is worth enough to buy more than a million sewing needles. Although she does not recover the needle she wanted, looking for it brings her a much greater gain. The ending changes the meaning of the loss that seemed so upsetting at first.
Holberg closes the fable with a simple lesson: a small loss can often be the cause of a large gain.
Adapted for Lejrbål from the credited source.
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