The Magic Box

This is the perfect story to read with your kids during your study of money and coins!  It is about a poor couple who find a box buried in their garden. At first, they are disappointed that the box is empty, but soon discover that it is a magic box when Marie’s hair ribbon falls into the box. As Lester reaches into the box to retrieve the ribbon, he sees that the whole box is full of duplicates of the ribbon.

At first Lester is irritated that his whole house is full of ribbons, but Marie has a plan. She took the ribbons to the market and sold them. She came home with fresh fruits, pork chops, warm loaves of bread and all kinds of veggies. She also had a gold coin. When Lester saw that coin, he jumped out of his chair and raced across the room accidentally knocking the coin out of Marie’s hand and into the box. Well, you can guess what happened next.

Soon Lester and Marie spent all day every day taking gold coins out of the box, putting them in stacks and then in sacks. They soon had enough gold coins to buy a mansion, which they did. It had seventeen bedrooms and a garage with twenty-eight cars. They decided to put the box in the biggest room in the house. Then they went back to taking the coins out of the box and putting them into stacks and then into sacks day after day.

They kept on buying things like a country club, a yacht and even an airplane, but they never had time to use anything because they were always taking the coins out the box, putting them into stacks and then into sacks day after day.

Their backs were killing them from bending over to get the coins out of the box, so they asked Grandfather to come and live with them so he could take the coins out of the box, and they could use their country club and yacht and airplane.

That worked for a while until Grandfather too, was weary of the job. In fact, he was so tired, that one day he fell into the box!  I bet you can guess what happened next!

The Magic Box is a comical retelling of an old folktale by professional storyteller, Dale Bulla. It is the most often requested story in his repertoire.

The Magic Box

A folktale adapted and retold by Dale Bulla

Illustrated by Rebecca Arkenberg

– Becky Lynn is a writer for EllisDownHome.com. She and her husband Bob enjoy spending time with their 8 grandchildren and traveling. Becky loves cranking up the music and heading to the kitchen to try out new recipes or cook for an upcoming party. She is passionate about continuing to be a life-long learner!

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