The Miller's Three Sons

A miller has three "lusty" sons. On his deathbed he questions them to decide which should inherit his mill. He asks each how much flour they will take from the grain brought to the mill by farmers to be ground. The eldest says he will take one peck out of every bushel (a quarter of the total).

"Thou art a fool," the old man said.
"Thou has not well learnt thy trade"[2]

The second son says he will take half, and gets the same reply.

The third son says:

"Before I will a good living lack, I'll take it all and foresware the sack"[3]

In most versions the old man leaves the mill to his youngest son, and dies. In some versions there is some speculation as to his eternal destination:

Now this millers's dead and in his grave,
And hungry worms his body have;
But where he's gone to I can't tell
But I'll leave it to you to judge for yoursel'.[4]

However in at least one version collected in Wisconsin:

The old man died without any will,
I'll be hanged if the old woman didn't keep the mill![5]

As both Steve Roud and Roy Palmer point out, millers were suspected of taking more than their fair share or "toll" of the flour produced from the grain taken by farmers to be ground. They often had a monopoly, and were suspected of sharp practice.[2][4] This unsavoury reputation goes back at least as far as Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"; Chaucer describes his miller as stealing corn and taking three times his toll:

He was a janglere and a goliardeys,
And that was moost of synne and harlotries.
Wel koude he stelen corn and tollen thries;
And yet he hadde a thombe of gold, pardee.[22]

— General Prologue, lines 560-563

• Vaughan Williams Memorial Library: http://www.vwml.org/
• MainlyNorfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music https://mainlynorfolk.info/john.kirkpatrick/songs/themillersthreesons.html
• The Mudcat Cafe http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=127317