If the old lady had known who Saint Peter really was, even then she wouldn’t have been generous in parting her bread with him. The poem describes the old lady as a very selfish and greedy woman, who couldn’t even share a small part of her bread with a priest. She couldn’t have learnt a lesson without being punished, and that is why Saint Peter cursed her that she would make her own home and find her food by boring all day into the woods.