There once lived a man and his wife in a village, near a magic lake. The man and his wife were good people but they had a problem, they could not have any children.

One day they decided to go to the magic lake, and ask the guardian of the lake for a child. "My wife cannot have children, though we have tried for many years nothing come of it" said the man. "We came to ask you if you would give us a child to care for" the man continued to speak.

"And why should I give you a child when you have brought me no offering" the Guardian spoke. The man took a beautiful heart-shaped locket from his pocket, it was his most precious possession. "My offering is my mother's locket" said the man. Then the Guardian decided to give them a child, whom she pulled from beneath the lake.

The child looked sweet as she slept, and she was very beautiful, "be WARNED, my child is precious to me, should you ever mistreat her in any way, you will lose her forever" said the Guardian. The man and his wife were happy and decided to name the child Precious.

Many years passed and both the Man and his Wife very happy, Precious was also happy and had grown into a beautiful woman, the man his wife took great care of her. Every man in the village knew about Precious' beauty, so every day her father would see many man who wanted her hand in marriage, but he refused all of them.

One day a young-man came with more cows than the man and his wife could count, he asked for Precious' hand, the father was persuaded by greed, so he agreed that the young man should marry Precious. Precious and the young man were married one month later and then they moved to another village. But before they left the man told the Young-man about the guardians warning, but the Young-man simply laughed.

The Young-Man's family worked Precious like a slave, she had to work day and knight, sometimes they would make her cook for them but she would not be allowed to eat the food she cooked, she went to sleep hungry. All her beautiful clothes were given to her sister's in-law. She had to wear old torn clothes and all her beautiful hair was cut short. She was very sad.

One day Precious' started to cry, her tears were so full of sadness that they started to fill her husband's home, they flooded the whole farm and then the whole village.

Her tears flooded many villages until they reached the magic lake. The Guardian saw that the tears were that of her daughter Precious, so she followed the river of tears and took her daughter home to the magic lake.

The Young-man and his family all perished from the flood. The man and his wife lost all of their possessions in the flood, including all the cows that he received for Precious' hand-in marriage, they were now poor and had lost their only child because of greed. They went to the magic lake to ask for help but when they arrived at the lake, the Guardian of the lake swallowed them up with the lake before they could speak.