Pious monks once lived in the monastery Na Slovanech, called Emmaus. So that the monks had enough food for the poor as well, they bred geese in the yard. Taking care of a large flock of poultry was not an easy job at all, however. The abbot therefore ordered the local cook to do this guarding duty. The local monastery cook was a fat man with a rather selfish nature.

The cook soon figured out that geese were a great opportunity to enrich himself. Occasionally, he therefore secretly took a well-fattened goose from the yard in the evening. He then inconspicuously cooked it in his monastery kitchen. He then enjoyed the fragrant and fat roast completely alone. He never shared the food and happily grew fat from the quiet theft. His cheating went completely unpunished for many years.

One gloomy early evening, however, everything changed. A mysterious stranger suddenly surprised the cook in the empty kitchen. He offered the greedy man an unusually tempting deal. The stranger asked him to kill absolutely all the geese in the yard by midnight. As a reward, he promised him a chest crammed to the brim with silver coins. The vision of easy wealth immediately blinded the fat cook, and he agreed to the deal.

When midnight struck on the church, the agreed exchange took place in the dark cellar. The cook secretly handed over all the killed geese to the man in bags. In return, the unknown stranger silently shoved a leather pouch into his hands. The thief very clearly felt heavy metal coins in it. He was looking forward to the promised money so much that he didn’t even thank the unknown man. He joyfully ran away with the pouch and locked himself in his quiet room with a key.

He eagerly emptied the bag on the bed. For he expected the clinking of heavy silver coins. However, a very cruel awakening to reality came. No shining silver fell out of the leather bag. Instead, only ordinary and dirty trash appeared on the mattress. The cook sadly stared at old dry leaves and foul-smelling lumps of evil. Divine justice simply did not leave the theft unpunished. The greedy cook ultimately reaped only mockery, great shame, and disappointment from his crime.