The Tailor in Heaven: A Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale

The Tailor in Heaven is a short German tale collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. It tells of a tailor who begs Saint Peter to let him enter heaven while God is away. Although the tailor is admitted on the condition that he remains quiet, curiosity leads him to a forbidden seat from which he can see events on earth. When he witnesses an old woman stealing, he reacts with anger and throws a golden footstool at her. His actions reveal the danger of judging others harshly while overlooking one’s own faults.

Saint Peter Guards the Gate of Heaven

One fine day, God decided to enjoy himself in the heavenly garden. He took the apostles and saints with him, leaving Saint Peter alone in heaven to guard the entrance.

Before leaving, God gave Saint Peter a clear instruction. No one was to be allowed into heaven during his absence.

Saint Peter remained at the gate, watching carefully and making sure that the command was obeyed.

After some time, someone knocked.

Saint Peter asked who was there and what the visitor wanted.

A voice answered that the visitor was a poor, honest tailor who wished to be admitted into heaven.

Saint Peter was not convinced by the man’s claim of honesty. He knew that tailors sometimes took small pieces of cloth belonging to their customers, and he accused the visitor of being light fingered.

The tailor had apparently made a habit of trimming pieces from other people’s clothing. Although he presented himself as an honest man, Saint Peter considered this behaviour dishonest.

He refused to let the tailor enter.

He also reminded the visitor that God had expressly forbidden him to admit anyone while the Lord was away.

The Tailor Begs for Mercy

The tailor did not want to leave the gate. He pleaded with Saint Peter to show him mercy.

He argued that the small scraps of cloth he had taken were merely pieces that fell from the worktable. In his opinion, they were too insignificant to be considered serious theft.

He also explained that he was lame and that his feet were covered in painful blisters from walking such a long distance.

He claimed that he could not possibly turn back and make the journey again.

The tailor begged Saint Peter to let him enter, promising that he would do whatever rough work was required of him.

Saint Peter felt pity for the exhausted traveller. Although he had been instructed not to admit anyone, he eventually allowed the tailor to slip inside.

However, Saint Peter imposed a strict condition.

The tailor was to remain quietly in a corner behind the door. He must not wander around heaven or do anything that might anger God when he returned.

The tailor agreed.

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He settled himself in the corner and appeared willing to obey. Saint Peter believed that the visitor would remain where he had been placed until the Lord returned.

For a while, the tailor did exactly as he had been told.

The Mysterious Golden Seat

The tailor, however, soon became curious about his surroundings.

He wanted to see what heaven looked like and discover what was beyond the corner where Saint Peter had left him.

When Saint Peter went outside the door, the tailor quietly rose from his place.

He began walking around heaven, looking into its different corners and examining the things he found there.

Before long, he came upon a collection of beautiful chairs and seats. Among them stood a magnificent golden seat decorated with shining jewels. A golden footstool rested before it.

The seat was more splendid than all the others.

The tailor was especially attracted to it. He stood nearby and admired its beauty for a long time.

Unknown to him, the seat belonged to God. It was the place from which the Lord could see everything happening on earth.

The tailor continued staring at it until his curiosity became too strong to resist.

At last, he climbed onto the seat and settled himself upon it.

The Tailor Sees a Thief on Earth

From the golden seat, the tailor could see events taking place on earth.

As he looked down, he noticed an old woman standing beside a stream, washing clothes.

While working, the woman secretly set aside two veils for herself.

The tailor watched her take the items and immediately became angry. He saw her actions as theft and believed that she deserved punishment.

He did not stop to consider his own conduct. He had entered heaven by pleading for mercy despite Saint Peter’s knowledge of his dishonesty. Yet, when he saw another person doing something wrong, he was unwilling to show the same patience.

The tailor’s anger grew as he watched the woman.

Beside the golden seat stood the golden footstool. In his fury, he seized it and threw it down from heaven towards the old woman.

He wanted to punish her for stealing the two veils.

After throwing the footstool, the tailor realised that he could not bring it back. He had taken an object belonging to God and sent it down to earth in a fit of anger.

Suddenly, his curiosity and desire to punish the woman had brought him into serious trouble.

The Lord Returns and Notices the Missing Footstool

When God returned to heaven with the apostles and saints, everything appeared as it had been left.

The tailor had hurried away from the golden seat. He returned to his corner behind the door and sat quietly, pretending that he had not moved.

God approached his seat and prepared to sit down.

Then he noticed that the golden footstool was missing.

He asked Saint Peter what had happened to it.

Saint Peter did not know. He had been away from the entrance and had not seen anyone remove the footstool.

God then asked whether Saint Peter had allowed anyone to enter heaven during his absence.

Saint Peter explained that he knew of no one who had entered, except for a lame tailor who was still sitting behind the door.

God ordered that the tailor be brought before him.

The Tailor Faces His Own Judgement

When the tailor stood before God, the Lord asked whether he had taken the golden footstool and, if so, where he had put it.

The tailor did not deny what he had done.

Instead, he explained that he had thrown the footstool down to earth because he had seen an old woman stealing two veils while washing clothes beside a stream.

He believed that his action was justified because the woman had committed a wrong.

God listened to the tailor’s explanation and challenged his reasoning.

If God were to judge people with the same harshness that the tailor had shown towards the old woman, the consequences would be terrible.

People on earth committed wrongs every day. If every sinner were immediately punished by having an object thrown at them from heaven, there would soon be no chairs, benches, seats or even an oven fork left in heaven.

The tailor had been quick to condemn another person, even though he himself had admitted to taking scraps of cloth that did not belong to him.

God’s response exposed the contradiction in the tailor’s behaviour. He wanted mercy for his own faults but demanded immediate punishment for someone else’s.

God then declared that the tailor could no longer remain in heaven.

He explained that punishment was not the tailor’s responsibility. The Lord alone would decide how people should be judged.

Saint Peter Takes the Tailor Away

God ordered Saint Peter to take the tailor outside heaven again.

Saint Peter obeyed.

The tailor had arrived with worn shoes and feet covered in blisters, and he was now required to leave the place he had been so desperate to enter.

He took a stick in his hand and went away to a place called Wait a Bit, where the good soldiers sat and made merry.

His stay in heaven had been brief. He had been admitted because Saint Peter took pity on him, but he lost that opportunity when he disobeyed instructions and tried to punish someone else.

The tale ends with the tailor outside heaven once more, having learned that judging another person’s wrongdoing does not give anyone the right to act as the final judge.

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Moral Lesson

We should not judge others harshly while ignoring our own faults. Mercy, humility and fair judgement are more valuable than anger and self righteousness.

Knowledge Check

1. Who guarded the entrance to heaven while God was away?

Saint Peter guarded the entrance while God went to the heavenly garden with the apostles and saints.

2. Why did Saint Peter initially refuse to admit the tailor?

He knew that the tailor had taken pieces of cloth from his customers and did not consider him honest.

3. What condition did Saint Peter set when he allowed the tailor inside?

The tailor had to remain quietly in a corner behind the door and avoid doing anything that would anger God.

4. What did the tailor see from God’s golden seat?

He saw an old woman washing clothes beside a stream and secretly setting aside two veils for herself.

5. Why did the tailor throw the golden footstool towards the old woman?

He became angry when he saw her taking the veils and decided to punish her for stealing.

6. Why did God send the tailor out of heaven?

The tailor disobeyed instructions, threw away God’s footstool and judged the old woman harshly despite his own dishonest behaviour.

Source

Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, Grimm’s Household Tales, translated by Margaret Raine Hunt, 1884, Tale 35, “The Tailor in Heaven” (German: “Der Schneider im Himmel”).

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