When Rumpelstiltskin was a young man, he lived in rural Kent.

In this part of Kent all the farmers grew hops for making beer. The fields were full of hops, and the countryside was dotted with oasts, little round buildings for drying them out.

Now, as you know, Rumpelstiltskin would go on to be famous for his magical ability to turn straw into solid gold, but he first learnt his skill using the local hops. Every night he went out with his little scythe, reaped a few hops from the corner of a field, and turned them into gold back at home. He knew it was dishonest, but he took such tiny quantities that the farmers never noticed.

Over time, though, Rumpelstiltskin noticed his gold was fetching less money at the market. His steady supply had driven the price of gold down, and he was going to need more hops to make the same money.

So he cleared bigger and bigger areas each night, and before long the farmers noticed there was a hop thief about. Worse, it was taking Rumpelstiltskin the entire night to gather all the hops that he needed. Soon he wouldn't have enough hours of darkness to keep up.

Just as things were looking bleak for him, Rumpelstiltskin had a brilliant idea. The farmers and labourers were already doing the time-consuming work of harvesting the hops and piling them up inside the oasts. If he wanted to grab hops quickly, he just had to break into one of the oasts. Instead of reaping the fields...

"Reap oasts," he murmured. "It might be stealing, but it's the quickest and easiest way to get gold."