Hans im Glück

Lucky Hans

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After seven years of service Hans asks his master for his wages and gets a lump of gold as big as his head. On the way home to his mother he trades it for a rider's horse, because riding looks so easy; the horse throws him into a ditch, and he trades it for a farmer's cow, for milk, butter and cheese. He eats all his food at an inn, and on a hot heath tries to milk the cow into his cap, but gets no milk and a kick on the head. A butcher with a young pig on his wheelbarrow tells him the cow is old and good only for the butcher, and Hans gladly trades the cow for the pig. A lad carrying a fat white goose tells him the pig was stolen from the mayor's sty and that people are looking for it, so Hans swaps the pig for the goose. In the last village a scissors grinder sings at his wheel and tells Hans that a grinder finds money in his pocket whenever he reaches in; Hans gives the goose for a worn whetstone, and the grinder adds a heavy field stone. Tired and hungry, Hans drags the stones to a well; as he bends to drink, he knocks them in. He thanks God with tears of joy for freeing him of the heavy stones, cries that no one under the sun is as lucky as he is, and runs home light-hearted to his mother.

Retold from Kinder- und Haus-Märchen, Band 2, 7. Auflage (Ausgabe letzter Hand, 1857), KHM 83 by Brüder Grimm (public domain).