Dansk / C1
Sypigen, som tabte sin nål
En sypige mistede engang en synål ude på en mark. Tabet tog hun sig så nær, at hun erklærede, at hun hellere ville have mistet ti andre nåle end netop denne ene.
Hun gjorde sig derfor al mulig umage for at opspore den. Anstrengelserne var imidlertid forgæves: nålen forblev usynlig, hvor ihærdigt hun end søgte efter den.
Eftersøgningen førte alligevel til et fund, blot af en ganske anden art end det, hun havde sat sig for at finde. Mens hun ledte efter den tabte synål, opdagede hun en ægte perle.
For perlens værdi ville hun kunne købe mere end en million synåle. Den enkelte nål, hvis tab hun havde beklaget så stærkt, blev altså anledningen til, at hun fandt 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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