He showed them magic beans, and a pen that would write only the truth, and a mouse that aged backward, and a goose that laid eggs in gold, silver, platinum, and iridium. He spun straw into gold and turned the gold into lead. 
It was the end of every fairy tale, all of the prizes for which knights and princes had fought and died and clever princesses had guessed riddles and kissed frogs.
The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman