“The Discontented Breadknife” or “The Breadknife and the Chef”

Courtesy of Pixabay

In a small town in Sweden, lay a shop that sold sparkling manufactured items. One of which was an ambitious bread-knife. It was very expensive, and it took pride in that.

On one particular evening a young woman came into the store and bought the knife. She took it home and began cutting apples for a big apple crisp. It was fun for the first while, finally being used and all, but the breadknife thought to itself, “This is not a respectable job for an expensive knife like me. Let a butter knife do it!”

So the breadknife let his handle slip, and the poor girl cut her finger, and in doing so she dropped the knife. Of all the wicked things to do, the breadknife actually aimed for her foot though it struck the floor, nicking the blade.

The next day she sold it to her neighbor, who wanted it for all the loaves of bread he had to cut. The breadknife liked what it was doing, it was finally cutting bread. But it too became old and tiresome.

So the breadknife thought, “I don’t like cutting bread. Too long has this peasant ran my nose through hard bread!”

Once again the breadknife shifted, this time it began to cut unevenly and the man didn’t like that. So the next morning it was sold to the cousin of the town’s leader’s wife, who needed it for cutting ropes on his fishing skiff. The breadknife didn’t like the sound of that at all, so the first chance it got it cut the fisherman’s hand.

Thus it was given to the fisherman’s cousin, the wife of the town’s leader. The wicked breadknife was pleased it was now in the royal household. But the Town’s leader’s wife did not know how to cook. So she gave it to her chef, who had a strange fascination with rubbing blades together. For many long hours, the town’s leader’s wife’s chef sat sharpening the knives, several time the breadknife tried to make its handle slip, but the chef had a good grip and just kept rubbing both of the knives’ noses together.

Thus was the fate of the breadknife: Powerless to change its situation, its blade was worn smaller than a toothpick.

The End