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    The Baker's Dozen

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    rafeahtami
    Van Amsterdam was an honest baker in colonial Albany who always gave customers exactly what they paid for. One day, an old woman asked for a dozen cookies but insisted a dozen was 13. When Van Amsterdam refused, his bakery became plagued with problems. He had a dream where the old woman revealed herself as Saint Nicholas and told him to give more. The next year, Van Amsterdam started giving 13 cookies for a dozen and his business prospered. This is how the tradition of the "baker's dozen" began.

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    The Baker's Dozen

    Uploaded by

    rafeahtami
    105 views5 pages
    Van Amsterdam was an honest baker in colonial Albany who always gave customers exactly what they paid for. One day, an old woman asked for a dozen cookies but insisted a dozen was 13. When Van Amsterdam refused, his bakery became plagued with problems. He had a dream where the old woman revealed herself as Saint Nicholas and told him to give more. The next year, Van Amsterdam started giving 13 cookies for a dozen and his business prospered. This is how the tradition of the "baker's dozen" began.

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    Van Amsterdam was an honest baker in colonial Albany who always gave customers exactly what they paid for. One day, an old woman asked for a dozen cookies but insisted a dozen was 13. When Van Amsterdam refused, his bakery became plagued with problems. He had a dream where the old woman revealed herself as Saint Nicholas and told him to give more. The next year, Van Amsterdam started giving 13 cookies for a dozen and his business prospered. This is how the tradition of the "baker's dozen" began.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    105 views5 pages

    The Baker's Dozen

    Uploaded by

    rafeahtami
    Van Amsterdam was an honest baker in colonial Albany who always gave customers exactly what they paid for. One day, an old woman asked for a dozen cookies but insisted a dozen was 13. When Van Amsterdam refused, his bakery became plagued with problems. He had a dream where the old woman revealed herself as Saint Nicholas and told him to give more. The next year, Van Amsterdam started giving 13 cookies for a dozen and his business prospered. This is how the tradition of the "baker's dozen" began.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 5

    THE BAKERS DOZEN

    By: Aaron Shepard

    Thank you Mr chairperson

    Assalamualaikum wtb, salam 1 Malaysia and a very good morning to all the
    honourable judges, respectable teachers and my lovely fellow friends.

    A story well told is a story well remembered. Like this one Im going to tell
    you today. It is entitle The Bakers Dozen so bear with me
    and enjoy my story.

    In the Dutch colonial town later known as Albany, New York, there lived a
    baker, Van Amsterdam, who was as honest man. Each morning, he checked
    and balanced his scales, and he took great care to give his customers exactly
    what they paid fornot more and not less.

    Van Amsterdams shop was always busy, because people trusted him,
    and because he was a good baker as well. And never was the shop busier
    than in the days before December 6, when the Dutch celebrate Saint
    Nicholas Day.

    At that time of year, people flocked to the bakers shop to buy his fine
    Saint Nicholas cookies. Made of gingerbread, iced in red and white.

    One Saint Nicholas Day morning, the baker was just ready for
    business, when the door of his shop flew open. In walked an old woman,
    wrapped in a long black shawl.

    I have come for a dozen of your Saint Nicholas cookies.


    Taking a tray, Van Amsterdam counted out twelve cookies. He started
    to wrap them, but the woman reached out and stopped him.
    I asked for a dozen. You have given me only twelve.
    Madam, said the baker, everyone knows that a dozen is twelve.
    But I say a dozen is thirteen, said the woman. Give me one more.
    Van Amsterdam was not a man to bear foolishness. Madam, my
    customers get exactly what they pay fornot more and not less.
    Then you may keep the cookies.
    The woman turned to go, but stopped at the door.
    Van Amsterdam! However honest you may be, your heart is small and
    your fist is tight. Fall again, mount again, learn how to count again!
    Then she was gone.

    From that day, everything went wrong in Van Amsterdams bakery.


    His bread rose too high or not at all. His pies were sour or too sweet. His
    cakes crumbled or were chewy. His cookies were burnt or doughy.
    His customers soon noticed the difference. Before long, most of them
    were going to other bakers.

    That old woman has bewitched me, said the baker to himself. Is this
    how my honesty is rewarded?
    2

    A year passed. The baker grew poorer and poorer. Since he sold little,
    he baked little, and his shelves were nearly bare. His last few customers
    slipped away.

    I wish Saint Nicholas could help me now, he said. Then he closed his
    shop and went sadly to bed.

    That night, the baker had a dream. He was a boy again, one in a crowd
    of happy children. And there in the middle of them was Saint Nicholas
    himself.

    He was standing on a horse with a baskets filled with gifts.


    He pulled out one gift after another, and gave them to the children. But Van
    Amsterdam noticed something strange. No matter how many presents
    Nicholas passed out, there were always more to give. In fact, the more he
    took from the baskets, the more they seemed to hold.

    Then Nicholas handed a gift to Van Amsterdam. It was one of the


    bakers own Saint Nicholas cookies! Van Amsterdam looked up to thank
    him, but it was no longer Saint Nicholas standing there. Smiling down at
    him was the old woman with the long black shawl.

    Van Amsterdam awoke and thought to himself.

    I always give my customers exactly what they pay for, he said, not
    more and not less. But why not give more?

    The next morning, Saint Nicholas Day, the baker rose early. He mixed
    his gingerbread dough and rolled it out. He moulded the shapes and baked
    them. He iced them in red and white to look just like Saint Nicholas. And
    the cookies were as fine as any he had made.

    Van Amsterdam had just finished, when the door flew open. In walked
    the old woman with the long black shawl.
    I have come for a dozen of your Saint Nicholas cookies.
    In great excitement, Van Amsterdam counted out twelve cookiesand
    one more.
    In this shop, he said, from now on, a dozen is thirteen.
    You have learned to count well, said the woman. You will surely be
    rewarded.
    She paid for the cookies and started out. But as the door swung shut,
    the bakers eyes seemed to play a trick on him. He thought he glimpsed the
    tail end of a long red cloak.
    ***
    As the old woman foretold, Van Amsterdam was rewarded. When
    people heard he counted thirteen as a dozen, he had more customers than
    ever.

    In fact, Van Amsterdam grew so wealthy that the other bakers in town
    began doing the same. From there, the practice spread to other towns, and
    at last through all the American colonies.

    And this, they say, is how thirteen became the bakers dozena
    custom common for over a century, and alive in some places to this day.

    And with that I end my story. Thank you for listening.

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