The Goosegirl at the Well

A goosegirl tends her geese near a well. She is poor, ragged, and unknown—yet she speaks always with absolute truthfulness. When asked questions, she answers not what people wish to hear but what is true. When she could gain advantage through a lie, she refuses. One day, a nobleman arrives at the well, desperate and weeping. He has committed a terrible injustice—he has falsely accused an innocent man, and that man suffers in prison. The nobleman asks the goosegirl: "Can I ever be forgiven? Will my lie destroy me?" The goosegirl, though she could comfort him with falsehood, speaks truth: "Only if you confess your lie and restore the innocent man's honor. There is no forgiveness except through truth." The nobleman, struck by her words, returns to the city and confesses his lie before all witnesses. The innocent man is freed. The nobleman, humiliated and ashamed, attempts to reward the goosegirl, but she refuses payment. "Why do you refuse?" he asks. "My truthfulness cost you nothing," she replies, "so it deserves no payment. Truth is a virtue practiced for its own sake, not for reward." Years pass. The goosegirl's reputation for truthfulness spreads throughout the land. Kings and nobles seek her counsel because they know she will tell them truth, however unwelcome. She becomes an advisor to rulers, her words pure gold because they cannot be doubted. Truthfulness—the absolute commitment to speak truth even when it costs the speaker—is the foundation of all other virtues. The goosegirl's simple honesty transformed her from a ragged peasant into a counselor to kings.