After reading it and passing it on to their friend, a farmer named Simon Riedler, they told him, “It is written in a sensational style.” So Simon Riedler glanced through it casually and in a somewhat prejudiced frame of mind. ‘Probably nothing but nonsense,’ he thought to himself.

Nevertheless, he read it a second time, then a third time. Would he finally appreciate the gems of truth in this booklet? Yes, even to the point of feeling ashamed of his original bias.

Desiring to investigate the message more thoroughly, Simon wrote to Vienna to the address given on the back of the booklet. How long he had wanted to possess a Bible! Thus he came into contact with Leopold König, the cooper who had returned from Switzerland and was now serving as a colporteur. When Brother König sent a pocket-size Luther Bible to that farmer, he probably never imagined the great joy it would cause. At last, Simon Riedler had his own Bible! Along with it, he read Zion’s Watch Tower and Food for Thinking Christians. His family, relatives, and neighbors heaped ridicule upon him. But Simon Riedler had found the truth; that was all that mattered. As he later said: “My heart was full, and my lips were brimming over.”

Simon Riedler, left, and Franz Ganster first heard of the truth in 1921