The Pied Piper of Hamelin is an interesting story.  The town of Hamelin is infested with rats, and the townspeople promise gold to anyone who can help them with the infestation.  A stranger shows up, and uses his pipe to lure the rats out of town and into a nearby river.  The townspeople balk on their offer, and refuse to pay the stranger.  The stranger then returns, and uses his pipe to lure the children out of the town.  He lures them to a nearby cave, and the children and the stranger are never seen again.

Now, there have been many interpretations of the story.  An old Disney cartoon portrays the piper as a hero of sorts, freeing the innocent children from the clutches of their greedy, selfish parents.  In another version, the piper returns the children after the townspeople pay him the gold he was originally promised.  I like to think though, that in most versions of the story, up until the moment he gets screwed, he's just a wanderer trying to make a quick buck.  It's really interesting to see how the story has changed so much over the years.  I find that the first half of the story tends to remain pretty similar throughout its many reincarnations.