Once upon a time there were a straw, a burning coal, and a bean. They went out for a walk together. After they had walked quite a distance, they were suddenly confronted with a ditch. They did not know how to cross the water, because the ditch was too wide to jump over.

Finally the straw said: "I've got a good idea. If I lay myself over the ditch, the coal and the bean can alternately walk over me to the other side. Then you can both pull me to the other side, and then we can walk on."

So it happened. The straw lay itself over the ditch, the bean waited on the one side, while the coal walked over to the other side. However, once the coal was in the middle, the straw started burning and they both fell into the water. When the bean saw this, he started laughing so hard that his belly burst.

The bean went to a blacksmith, who repaired the burst with a little black plate. Now the bean was mended again, but until today you can still see that every bean has a little black spot.