Paul the Penny Pincher

    "Pennies! Pennies for meee!" Paul screaled through his lips. All day long Paul the Penny Pincher circled the wishing fountain, snatching any pennies on their way into the pool. Children cried as their hopes of a wish were crushed, and then even more so as he crushed the pennies themselves between his pinch.

    Paul wore a sack slung to one side, and in it he kept all the flakes of copper that were once pennies. No one tried to confront him. Anyone that could squeeze a penny to a fraction of its original thickness with just their thumb and forefinger was not worth the trouble. Paul's hands, wrists, and forearms together were the size of large loafs of bread, so no one in their right mind would approach him, regardless of the status of their potential wish.

    No one knows where Paul goes after the town square closes, but every day he returns to the fountain with an empty sack, snatching and pinching pennies to fill it.