Peter wants to marry the woman he loves but her father forbids it as Peter has no money or prospects. She too comes to see that he is nothing but a bumbling idiot who will never amount to anything and leaves him. Then a chance meeting with a man (the devil) changes his life when the devil offers him vast amounts of gold in exchange for his shadow. Although Peter now has a bottomless purse of gold contracts with the prince of darkness have an unfortunate habit of turning in to boomerangs.

Chosen as his favorite story by American poet Robert Frost.