There was a poor but good little girl who lived alone with her mother.
One day they no longer had anything to eat. The child went out into the
forest, and there an old woman gave her a wonderful little pot. When you
said to it, “Cook, little pot, cook,” it would cook good sweet porridge.
And when you said, “Stop, little pot, stop,” it would stop cooking. The
girl took the pot home to her mother, and they were no longer hungry,
but ate sweet porridge whenever they chose.
Once when the girl had gone out her mother said, “Cook, little pot,
cook.” The mother ate till she was satisfied. But when she wanted the pot
to stop she found she did not know the word. So it went on cooking and
the porridge rose over the edge. STILL it cooked on until the kitchen and
the whole house were full, and then the next house, and then the whole
street, as if it meant to feed the whole world. No one could stop it.
At last when only one house remained the child came home from the
opposite direction and just said, “Stop, little pot, stop,” and it
stopped.
But whoever wished to come back to the town that night had to eat his way
back.
—FOLK STORY