They were clueless!

They on the other hand considered themselves very smart.
People from all over the world knew of Chelm and laughed when you even mentioned the word Chelm.

The smartest people in the town were the Rabbis and the Scholars.
Even they had special ideas and thoughts.
Of course they were very "special"
When there was any trouble, people would go to the Rabbis and Scholars for answers.
They would tell people to do very strange things.
But not strange for Chelm!

One day Moshe, a young man, who makes Olive Oil said to himself "there is no Olives left to make Olive Oil!"
So he decided to go to another village.
He took hs friend Yoshi with him just in case he needed help carrying things back.
Yoshi also was friends with the Olive man from the neighboring village.

They found the Olive Merchant and asked if he had any extra olives left.
The Merchant told them he did not have any extras.
There had been a drought and their best olive trees died.
But he had lots of Olive Oil he could sell them.
They happily paid for the extra large jar of oil and some cups for the Mennorah.

It tool both of them to carry their purchase.
It was so heavy!
In a short time, they dropped the jar.
It rolled away.
Luckily they had put the Mennorah cups in their pockets.
They chased it and finally picked it up.
They continued on their journey.
But they did not notice the crack in the jar.
As they walked home, the oil started to leak leaving a trail as they walked.

When they got back to Chelm, it was the morning of the first night of Chanukah.
Everyone wanted to buy Olive Oil to light their Mennorahs.
They sold them some and went home.

That night everyone was playing dreidle.
Instead of pennies or nuts they used wooden matches to play the game.
The winner got to use the matches to light the large town Mennorah.

A boy named Yosel won the honor.
Yosel takes his matches and lights the first wick.
The wind blew the flame down on the ground where the oil men had dripped the oil.
The trail of oil went on fire all the way back to the other town.

The Rabbi of Chelm prayed to Hashem to save the village.
The neighboring town folks put out the fire.
The Rabbi saw the fire go out and thought that Hashem did it.
He yells "it's a Miracle!"

On the third day of Chanukah, they cooked Latkes (potatoe pancakes)
They used lots of oil.
The children were playing dreidel with matches again. They played and ate, played and ate some more.
Then one of the matches rubbed against something and lit itself.
The flame lit all of the oily latkes on fire.
Luckily it was raining and the roof leaked.
It put out the fire.
The Rabbi said, 'it's a Miracle!"

Every night they played, ate and lit the Menorahs.
On the 6th night , everyone ran out of olive Oil.
They went back to Moshe to buy more.
Moshe looked in the extra large jar and to his surprise there was none left.
He then sees the crack.

So Moshe and Yoshi went to a different village to buy more oli.
They found someone who had lots of oil and selling it for a very good price.
They were very happy.
They had so much money left over that they decided this time to not carry the extra large jar home themselves.
They hired someone to drive them back.
They forgot to tell the driver they were carrying oil.

As they got into Chelm, he lights his pipe and tosses the match behind him.
He sets the jar on fire and then----BOOM!
The entire wagon was burnt to a crisp.
Everyone jumped off safely.
So the Rabbi says, "its's another one of Hashem's miracles!".

They went to another village and again brought back oil.
This time they had to use their own money, since the last oil exploded before they sold any.
They weren't very happy.
They had enough oil to finish the rest of the days and to cook more latkes.

On the last night of Chanukah they went to a special service at their shul.
They went to light the last night's wicks and found they were all out of oil.
The Rabbi and the Scholars did not know what to do.

The scholars sent Moshe, Yoshi and others out to look for someone who still had oil.
They found a family eating their supper of latkes.
They had just used up the last of their oil to cook their supper.
They still had a few latkes left.
The scholars said, "remember the night the latkes went on fire?
Maybe we can use them for candles!"

So they all took the greasy leftover latkes back to the shul.
They broke them up into little pieces and put them in the cups of the Mennorahs.
Then the greatest miracle of Chanukah in Chelm happened!
They lit the latkes and they started to burn.
They burnt all night.
The Rabbi said, "it's a Miracle!"

The moral of the story is don't make things too greasy or they might just be too bright for you.

Ronin I. Wood was 11 years old when he wrote this as a class assignment.
He had been writing stories about Chelm for about 3 years.
He also likes reading other stories about Chelm and the Golem.