The Sorcerer's Apprentice

A sorcerer leaves his workshop in the charge of an apprentice, with instructions to clean up all the mess. Fed up with doing chores the apprentice casts a spell on his broom to do the chores for him, but it all goes horribly wrong and soon the floor is covered in water. In desperation to stop the broom the apprentice splits the broom in two with an axe, but this simply creates two brooms to cause havoc. Eventually the sorcerer returns and breaks the spell, and advises his apprentice that powerful spirits should only be called upon by the master himself. The story of the Sorcerer's Apprentice was originally told in poetry form by Goethe in 1797.