The name of the devil is greed

There was a funny little man

Whose name was hard to say,

And if you could not manage it,

He'd take your child away.

The man was very gifted

At turning things to gold,

But did not over use it,

In case this skill grew old.

Though he had never gone to school,

The economic theory,

That scarcity kept value high,

Could render him quite teary.

He knew that he could fill his boots,

With all that he might need,

But there are things you cannot buy.

For these he had such greed.

So he kept his gift a secret,

Only lent it to a few,

And then came back years later

When payment became due.

He had a certain prescience,

When choosing who to work with,

And knew how gold could elevate,

The farmer or the blacksmith.

He hoarded his indebted friends,

By stepping in as saviour,

And later when they came to greatness,

He'd cash in on his favour.

Mostly he would seek a gift

Like free reign with their daughter,

But sometimes he would specify,

A sacrifice for slaughter.

Some desperate folk would grant his wish,

Believing it unlikely

That they would ever need to pay,

A price that's so unsightly.

But no one ever told of him,

To hide from all their shame,

And even if they wanted to,

They could not say his name.

One day he turned some straw to gold

For one who yearned to rule,

And sure enough she became a queen,

Though the bargain was too cruel.

He said he'd take her first born,

To do with what he willed,

But she thought she'd yet outwit him,

Or else, she'd have him killed.

So when that fateful day arrived

And he came to claim his prize,

The guards were ready with their spears,

But the man hid another surprise.

For he could disappear at will,

And re-appear elsewhere,

Which made him hard to kill with spears.

The queen thought this unfair.

But all was not yet lost for her,

As we already know,

If one could say his name out loud,

He'd concede defeat and go.

This queen had once been humble,

But now she had more power,

She thought herself invincible,

It turned her heart quite sour.

So she believed she had the right

To do with as she pleased,

The details of her subjects lives,

And property she seized.

So when the man appeared to her,

And said he'd take the baby,

She knew that she would bring him down,

There was no if, no maybe.

The queen had one more trick to try,

As ruler of the land,

The magistrate would change his name,

If she gave the command.

She chose the name quite carefully,

To humiliate him more,

And called him after her own pet,

Rumplestitskin, the giant boar.

Well the man appealed it, naturally,

And the court found in his favour.

They said she'd overstepped the mark,

And frowned on her behaviour.

The King was shocked, it must be said,

And asked for a divorce,

And she went home to bed and wept,

Alone with her remorse.

But with all of the publicity,

His secrets were laid bare,

And the man was thrown into a cell,

For eating babies, rare.

The guards were keen to help him,

And really were quite bold,

In promising such luxuries,

If he could give them gold.

But the man was disinclined to help,

He did not need the bother,

Of dealing with a crowd of guards,

Who'd chat to him, and hover.

He disappeared quite quickly,

Of course he wouldn't stay,

And never was he seen again,

Unless you were due to pay...

Take heed my friends, and listen well,

For all of us are tempted,

But if you sell your soul, you'll pay,

And no one is exempted.