Fairy story - The stone in the road

Near a large village, there lived a rich man. He had a very fine louse of many rooms filled with beautiful things. Around the house grew big leafy trees. Under the trees it was cool and shady on the hottest days.The rich man's house stood beside the road. Every day a great many people traveled along the road on their way to and from the tillage.
The rich man liked to watch the people as they passed by. Often hey looked hot and dusty and tired. Then he would ask them to come in and rest in the cool shade of the trees. If they were thirsty, the rich man ordered his servants to bring them cool sparkling water. If they were hungry, he gave them fine white bread, sweet cakes and juicy fruits. The tired mothers were glad to rest under the shade trees. The children had fun romping about in the grass.
Every day the rich man watched the people traveling back and forth on the road in front of his fine house. It made him sad because he saw so many lazy people.
"I wonder if everybody is lazy," thought the rich man.
And he tried to think of a plan to find a person who was not afraid to work. He thought and thought and by and by he had an idea. He had his servants bring a great stone and he placed it himself in the middle of the road. Then he went into his house and sat down by the window to see what would happen.
The first person who went by was a man taking his cow to sell at the market in the village. When the man saw the big stone in the way, he frowned.
"Why should that great stone be there in the middle of the road for a poor man to stumble over," he grumbled.
"The man who lives in that fine house over there must be rich. Why doesn't he have his serv­ants take the stone away?"
The man with the cow muttered and grumbled, but he did not try to move the stone. He was too lazy. He walked around it, pulling his cow behind him, and went on his way to the market.
The next person who passed by was a farmer carrying his corn to the mill to be ground. When he saw the stone in the middle of the road, he began to grumble too.
"Why should that great stone block the way?" he grumbled.
"If I were as rich as that man who lives in that fine house must be, I would order my servants to take it away."
But the farmer did not try to move the stone. He was too lazy. He drove around it, and went on his way muttering and grumbling.
All day long, people traveling along the road came to the stone and grumbled about its being in the way. But no one tried to move it. They were all too lazy. By and by toward night the miller's boy came whistling along the road. He had worked hard all day long at the mill and he was very tired.
He came to the stone and stopped.
"It will soon be dark," he said to himself. "Some one is sure to fall over this big stone and be hurt. I must move it before it grows any darker."
He took hold of the stone with both hands. It was very, very heavy and he could move it only a little way at a time. Besides he was very tired from his long day of hard work at the mill. But he tugged and pulled with all his might until at last he had rolled the stone out of the road.
"Now," said the miller's boy, "the stone can do no harm.”
He put his hands in his pockets and was just starting off home, when he looked down at the place where the stone had been. There lay a big pot. It had been hidden by the stone. The miller's boy lifted the cover off the pot. Then his eyes grew as big as saucers. The pot was filled with shining gold pieces! There was something written on the side of the pot. The miller's boy bent down and spelled it out.
He read: "This pot and the gold belong to the one who takes away the stone."
"Why," said the miller's boy, clapping his hands. "That surely must mean me." And he went off, dragging the heavy pot behind him, and thinking how surprised and happy the folks at home would be over his good fortune.
And the rich man watching from his window was happy, too. At last he had found some one who was not afraid of work.