Once upon a time there was a gentleman who got lost in the woods. It started to get dark, and he was looking for a place to spend the night, but there was not a light in sight. As he was walking along, another man caught up with him; the man looked a bit shabby, but still the gentleman was glad to meet a man who could perhaps give him directions. So he asked him where he was going.

"Well," the other man said, "I have to go to the city where the king lives."

"In that case, let's go together," the gentleman proposed, "because that's where I have to go, too. If you don't mind me asking, what's your business with the king?"

"Oh, I am an ex-soldier," said the man, "and I am going to ask the king for a pension."

"Do you think the king will give it to you?"

"If he doesn't, I will take a stone from my pocket and throw it in his face."

"I wouldn't do that," the gentleman said, "because that could cost you your life."

"I don't care," the soldier said, "because if I don't get a pension, I will die from hunger anyhow. It doesn't matter to me how I die."

Talking like this, they walked along and arrived at an inn.

They went inside and found an old maid, who said, "Good heavens, what are you doing here? Twelve robbers live in this place, and as soon as they find you here, you first have to play cards with them, and then they will murder you."

The gentleman was unpleasantly surprised by her words, but the soldier thought, Oh well, I can only die once.

Anyway, there was no time to leave, even if they wanted to, because the robbers came in, wished everyone a good evening, sat at a table, and ordered something to drink.

Then the soldier said, "Old maid, I am dry as dust; boil me a kettle of water, will you,so that I can have several drinks of warm water and milk soon." .

So the maid put the kettle on. She had secretly warned the soldier that as soon as the robbers stepped on each others' toes under the table, he had to watch out.

They started playing cards, and after a while the soldier saw that one robber stepped on the other's toes.

It's time for action, the soldier thought, and he hit the lamp so hard that the light went out.

"Take cover," he shouted to the gentleman, and he immediately started to throw the boiling water from the kettle. Then he grabbed his sabre and killed the robbers one by one.

When he had finished, he called for the old maid and said, "Would you please clean up this mess a bit, old maid, so that we can relax and talk for a while?"

So it happened, and the gentleman said, "My goodness, you're some kind of fighter! If it were not for you, this could have ended in a disaster. Please let me give you some good advice for tomorrow: I would keep that stone in your pocket, if I were you."

"No way," the other said. "That stone is for the king if I don't get a pension."

Although they went to bed late that evening, the next morning they got up early. Together they walked to the city, where the soldier entered the first inn he found, and the gentleman went home.

The same morning the king summoned his prime minister and said, "I don't like to receive people just this moment; so if people come to see me, you talk to them instead. If it so happens that former soldiers come asking for a pension, tell them that they can forget it."

When the soldier learned at the inn how late the king was giving an audience, he went to the palace. He asked for an audience, and a lackey bought him to the hall where the prime minister resided. The prime minister was wearing such a dignified uniform that the soldier naturally assumed he was dealing with the king, all the more so because the prime minister did not say he was mistaken. So the soldier started telling about his many years in the service of the king, and how he was dismissed and had to suffer poverty if the king wouldn't grant him a pension.

The prime minister remembered what the king had ordered, though, so he said he was sorry, but he could not give him a pension. Now the soldier asked if he had to die from hunger. Why were his past brave deeds not worth a reward anymore?

The prime minister replied that so many things had to be paid for, and that there was no money left in the treasury for pensions.

Then the soldier asked once more, if the king refused to give him a pension.

The prime minister answered that under no circumstances would he get a pension.

Then the soldier took the stone out of his pocket and threw it right in the face of the prime minister. Of course this incident lead to immediate upheaval, and the soldier was arrested and put in jail in no time.

Still, the soldier's adventure would come to a better end than he could ever have hoped for.

It seems the king heard what had happened, and he knew about the brave conduct of the soldier in the home of the robbers the previous night. The king ordered the soldier to be brought before him. Imagine the soldier's astonishment, as he saw that the king and the gentleman from last night were one and the same person! Of course the soldier was highly rewarded for saving the king's life, and he was allowed to stay and live at the king's court until he died.