Once upon a time, a Polish man had the most wonderful wife in the world. She was sweet, good natured, and made the best dumplings in the world. This man would eat the dumplings for dinner every single night. Other women would try to cook her recipe, but the meal just never came out quite as perfect.

One winter, this poor woman caught a nasty cold and passed away. Her husband was distraught – What would he do without his favorite meal? He tried dumplings from all around the world, but nothing was ever the same. He grew thin and sickly because no food in this world could tempt his appetite.

Spring and summer slowly passed, and soon it was time for the man to take his farm’s harvest to market. He brought his wares into the city and left his cart in the market square. Wandering around, he was suddenly overcome with sleepiness, so he laid down underneath the archway of St Martin’s and took a nap.

In his dreams, his wife came to him! She presented him with a pot full of his favorite dumplings. She told him that the pot would always be full, so that he could always eat his favorite food and would never go hungry again She couldn’t bear to see him waste away! However, the pot came with a warning. He must always leave one dumpling left on the bottom. If he ate every last one, the pot would never again refill.

When the man woke up, the pot sat right beside him! And a huge pile of warm dumplings sat inside of it! Quickly he took up his fork and began eating. Mmm, they were as good as he remembered. He ate and ate for hours. Suddenly he looked down and realized that there was only one dumpling left. He remembered his wife’s warning, but this dumpling looked like the best and freshest of them all. He couldn’t possibly believe that his wife would be so cruel as to deny him dumplings forever, so he reached down his fork and prepared to eat it.

Just as he brought the dumpling to his mouth, it fell off of his fork and dropped right back into the pot. “Haha,” the man thought to himself, “My wife is just playing tricks on me.” So he tried again to pick it up. And again it fell back into the pot. “Well, she was always a jokester,” he thought again. A third time, he stabbed the dumpling with his fork and brought it up to his mouth. Right before he could bite down on it, the dumpling began to float away!

It floated up and up into the air. Te man scrambled after it as best he could, but it was so quick. Soon it was floating up above the buildings, toward the archway. The man began to climb the arch, hoping to grab it. Luck was on his side when the dumpling settled down right on the center of the arch, so the man reached forward and snatched at it.

But as soon as his fingers touched the dumpling, it turned to stone.
And there it still sits.