The Good Bargain
Story by: Brothers Grimm
Source: Kinder- und Hausmärchen
Once there was a simple peasant who took his cow to market and sold her for seven bright coins. Whistling, he set off for home, jingling the coins in his pocket. As he crossed a pond, he heard frogs croaking, “Eight! Eight! Eight!”
“You silly creatures, I have only seven!” he called. But the frogs kept croaking, “Eight! Eight!”
Annoyed, the peasant shouted, “If you don’t believe me, count for yourselves!” and tossed his coins into the water. The frogs croaked louder, and the peasant realized he’d lost all his money.
Fuming, he marched to the king’s castle and demanded justice. The king’s daughter, a clever and mischievous princess, listened to his tale and burst out laughing. “You are a fool, but I will help you,” she said, handing him a purse. But when the peasant opened it, it was filled with pebbles.
The peasant, not to be outdone, played along. Through a series of comic misadventures—mistaking dogs for royal messengers, arguing with the princess, and outwitting the courtiers—he finally won the king’s favor. The king, amused by the peasant’s wit and persistence, gave him a bag of gold and a new cow.
The peasant returned home, laughing at the frogs and the tricks of fate. “A good bargain, after all!” he declared, and never argued with frogs again.
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