The Man Who Had Naught Lyrics
What do robbers get from a man who owns nothing? Nothing, of course. This short story-rhyme has a joke in every verse, and the last line has the best one.
The Man Who Had Naught
There was a man and he had naught,
And robbers came to rob him;
He crept up to the chimney pot,
And then they thought they had him.
But he got down on t'other side,
And then they could not find him;
He ran fourteen miles in fifteen days,
And never looked behind him.
Printed from https://nurseryrhymes.co/the-man-who-had-naught/
- Type
- Mother Goose
- Tune
- Spoken rhyme
- Best for ages
- 3 to 8 years
What Does The Man Who Had Naught Mean?
Naught is an old word for nothing, so the robbers are after a man with nothing to steal. He climbs up to the chimney pot, slips down the other side of the roof, and runs away so well that they never find him. The final line is the punchline: he ran fourteen miles in fifteen days, which is barely a mile a day, and still "never looked behind him".
History and Origin
The rhyme is printed in The Real Mother Goose (1916), which drew on older English collections. The idea of a poor man with nothing to lose outwitting robbers is a very old one in folk tales. The rhyme keeps it light: nobody is hurt, and the man simply disappears over the roof.
Learning Activities
- Spot the joke: ask your child whether fourteen miles in fifteen days is fast or slow.
- Act it out: one child is the man, climbing over a cushion "roof" while the others look for him.
- Chimney count: on a walk, count chimney pots on the rooftops.