A widow and her daughter lived in a small cottage in a village. They were so poor that they often had to go to bed hungry.
One day when they had nothing to eat, the girl wandered off into the woods to look for berries or nuts. Finding only a few berries she began to cry.
As she was returning home, an old lady came up to her carrying a large pot. “My dear, why are you crying?” asked the old woman. And the girl told her how she had failed to find anything for her mother or herself to eat.
The old woman smiled and held out the pot to her, saying, “Take this, my dear. It’s a magic pot. If you say, ‘Cook, little pot, cook!’ it will get filled up with hot porridge.”
The pot immediately began to bubble with hot, fragrant porridge! “Now if you say, ‘Stop, little pot, stop!’ the porridge will stop cooking.”
The girl looked in wonder as she took the pot and thanked the old woman, “Thank you so much!” She ran home to share this wonderful gift with her mother.
She carefully explained everything to her mother. They both ate to their hearts’ content. For the first time, they did not have to go hungry to bed.
A few days later, the girl had gone out to the market. Her mother felt very hungry and decided to eat a little porridge. So she said, “Cook, little pot, cook!” And soon she was happily eating the hot, sweet porridge and enjoying herself. Her happiness knew no bounds.
But she had forgotten to stop the pot from cooking any more. By the time she finished eating, the porridge had bubbled right out of the pot and was spreading all over the floor. Soon it reached the door. The woman was so frightened that she forgot the magic words to stop the pot from cooking.
She stood on a chair and shouted all but the right words, “Stop, pot!”….. “Stop, porridge!”….. “Small pot, stop! Stop!”…… “Oh, please stop!”
But the porridge simply flowed like a rich, creamy river, right out of the door and down the road. It swept into other cottages!
People came out to see what was flooding their village. Very soon children were running out with pots and pans to collect the delicious porridge and eat it!
Into this chaos, the girl returned and immediately guessed what must have happened. She waded through the porridge to find her mother stranded on the chair still trying to stop the pot.
Laughing at her mother, the girl said, “Stop, little pot, stop!” and the pot immediately stopped cooking. But after that, the village had a feast of porridge and no one was hungry any more!
