He left his workshop and went to bed hungry. He and his wife had no more food, since the day before he had spent their last coins on a piece of leather.

In the morning, the shoemaker cleaned his glasses and threaded his needle and looked around for that piece of leather. But something amazing had happened. A finished pair of shoes stood in the center of the table. The shoes were perfect to the last shiny buckle. Someone had made those shoes for him that night.He rapidly sold the shoes at twice the usual price. And with that money he bought some food and some pieces of leather. The next morning he had twenty shoes, which he sold in less than an hour. He then purchased several pieces of fine leather.

As he laid all those pieces of leather on the table he was determined to see who was making all those shoes. He and his wife stood in the next room and spied through a little hole in the wall. Around midnight they saw six naked leprechauns sneak into the shoemaker's shop. It was winter and the leprechauns shivered while they busily made two hundred shoes.

"Poor fellows! They must be very cold," the shoemaker's wife whispered to her husband. "Tomorrow I will make them some beautiful clothes to thank them for helping us."

The shoemaker's wife searched for the best material to make their clothes. All she could find were green colored silks, green tweeds and green wools. She spent almost all the money they had left, buying the most expensive fabrics. She worked all day making the clothes for the six little leprechauns. She hoped that they wouldn't be too disappointed that all their clothes were green in color.