The Lazy Spinner facts for kids

"The Lazy Spinner" or "The Lazy Spinning Woman" is a German fairy tale. It was collected by the famous Brothers Grimm and is tale number 128 in their collection. This story is known as Aarne-Thompson type 1405, which helps classify different types of folk tales.

What Is "The Lazy Spinner" About?

This fairy tale tells the story of a woman who really disliked spinning thread. When she did spin, she would not wind the finished thread onto a reel. Instead, she left it all tangled on the bobbin. Her husband often complained about this messy habit.

How Did She Avoid Work?

To stop her husband's complaints, the lazy woman came up with a clever trick. She told him she needed a special reel to wind the thread properly. When her husband went into the forest to cut wood for a new reel, she secretly followed him. She then shouted loudly, "Whoever cuts a reel will die!" This scared her husband so much that he stopped cutting the wood.

The Yarn Trick

Even after this, her husband still complained about her not spinning. So, the woman spun some yarn, but then she said it needed to be boiled. She put some tow (which is a rough, coarse fiber, not good yarn) into the pot instead of the real yarn. She then told her husband to watch the pot carefully. After a while, he opened the pot and saw the tow. He thought he had ruined all the yarn! From that day on, her husband never dared to complain about her spinning again.