Stories
A Fine Gentleman Helps Two Coal Miners to Divide Three Gold Sovereigns
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It was a man called Ben Griffiths, from Waun-fawr [Pen-boyr], who told me this story. He said that two coal miners had been working a bit of overtime one week, to earn some extra money. Between them they'd been paid three pounds more than usual. Three gold sovereigns. After they'd gone a little way out into the countryside now, to some lonely place, they began dividing the money. One of them tries to divide it. He says:
'One for me, one for you, one for me. Oh, no, that won't do.' The other tries:
'One for me, one for you, one for me.' Nothing. Nothing worked. They saw a fine gentleman approaching on horseback. They stopped him. They said:
'Excuse me, sir, will you help us?'
'Oh, yes. What's the matter?'
'We can't divide these three pounds between us.'
'Oh, I'll do that for you now. One for you, one for you, and one for me.'
'Thank you sir.'
And after he'd gone:
'It's a great thing to be an educated man,' said one to the other. Yes.
