On that day in December, toy store owner Franz Carl had had his usual stressful day. He had been delivered purple rocking horses, even though pink ones were in fashion this year. Impatient people were queuing up at the checkout. Barbies and teddy bears, picture books and computer games all had to be wrapped up nicely in Christmas wrapping paper and red and gold ribbon. When Franz Carl finally arrived home long after closing time and sank exhausted into his armchair to read the newspaper, his daughter came and wanted to play with him. She hadn't seen him all day and had been pestering her mother for a while with "When is Daddy coming home?"

To keep the child occupied, Franz Carl took a page out of the newspaper. It showed a map of the world. Marked on it were the disasters, the places where there had been famines or terrorist attacks during the year, tanker accidents, floods, and forest fires. The map showed the trouble spots, countries where even during Advent soldiers were shooting at people, tanks were destroying villages, and planes were dropping bombs on cities.

Franz Carl tore the page into small pieces and said to his daughter, "Here's a puzzle for you. Try to put this world back in order." Franz Carl turned his attention to the rest of the newspaper. But he couldn't read in peace for long. After just a few minutes, his daughter came back to show her father the finished map.

His curiosity was stronger than his annoyance at being interrupted again. The father asked his child how she had managed it so quickly. "It's simple," replied his daughter. "There was a picture of a person on the back of the world map. I just had to put the person in the right place, and then the world was right again."