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Once upon a time, there was a man who loved the circus so very much that he dedicated his life to producing and distributing the materials necessary to make it run. He especially loved outfitting clowns — big red noses, big red wigs, big red shoes and colorful jumpsuits made him happier than just about anything in the world.

Unfortunately, over the years he saw the circus business decline slowly, until the circus stopped coming pretty much all together. He could no longer hear the call of the ringmaster, smell the elephants, see the brightly colored tent from his window. This made him very sad. But what made him especially sad was that with the circus went his business. In fact, he had just enough material to make his very last order, a pair of bright yellow clown shoes with the back end of an elephant elephant painted on each over-sized toe.

So one night he laid out all his materials, and left them overnight to begin work in the morning. But when the morning came, he was awakened by a banging on his door. He answered in his nightshirt, and on the other side was a very surly clown.

The clown just scowled, and demanded his shoes. In a panic, the man tried to stall while he went to his workspace, and was surprised to find the shoes complete.

The clown grumbled thanks, paid him, and stomped away.

The man briefly wondered why the clown was so angry, and indeed, how exactly the shoes had come to be finished, but stopped wondering when he realized the clown had left him a tip. A very large tip.

He was able to buy enough material for at least two more pairs of shoes, and place an ad in the paper of a neighboring town, where the circus still visited occasionally.

Two more orders came in, and the man happily set out his materials to work on the next day.

But when the next day dawned, he found again that the rubber red nose that honked and pair of blue striped shoes had been finished during the night.

And it didn’t stop there.

For weeks, he had more orders than ever before, but still every night, his work was completed for him. For a long time, he was able to concentrate on marketing and sales research, and his business did better than ever before. He even started Twittering about the clown outfitters business.

One night, he decided he needed to know how it was all happening. So he laid out his materials, shut off all the lights, and in the dark, waited, and watched.

Late into the night, they emerged.

A tiny car drove by the table, and out piled six or seven tiny clowns, all in the nude. At least, the man assumed because of their makeup and wigs that they were clowns. They had no shoes! No jumpsuits! No large red noses!

After running around and falling down comically for a little while, the clowns set to work on the remaining orders, and piled back into the car only after the last jumpsuit had its wildly inappropriate buttons sewn on.

The man was so touched that he dedicated the next day to making six or seven tiny clown outfits, complete with jumpsuits, noses and shoes, each with a theme color and clever design on the toes. That night he waited again, and watched them collect their new belongings, model them in front of the mirror he’d left for them, and get back into their tiny car.

After that night, he never saw them again.

At first, he was a bit mad at himself for his role in losing their services. But although his business slowed down, he was able to keep it, and sometimes he made new tiny clown clothes and left him in his workshop, just in case.

The End.

Source: The Shoemaker and the Elves, Brothers Grimm