“Once there were three sisters who were very beautiful, and they all lived in the same house. A beggar came one day asking for rice, and one of the sisters went down the stairs with a plateful for him. As soon as he received it, he seized the girl, and putting her into a sack, he carried her off to his home. The next day he said to her, ‘I must go away for several days and will leave you all my keys. But you must not unlock room thirteen; all the others you may go in, but not thirteen.’
“So she took the keys and an egg which he gave her to keep, and prepared to wait for his return. By and by she became curious, however, and decided to open the forbidden room. As soon as she pushed back the door, she saw scattered about the floor portions of the body of a dead man. She was so frightened that she dropped the egg and the keys, and when she picked them up again the egg of course was broken and the keys were bloody.
“When the old man returned, he saw the broken egg and the keys with blood on them. So he locked the girl in the room with the dead man, and went again to the home of the sisters, begging for bananas. Just as before, one of the sisters came to grant his request for food, and he put her into his bag and took her home with him. As with the first sister, he gave her an egg and the keys, with the same instructions not to enter room thirteen. Of course, the second sister did as the first had done and also dropped the egg and the keys.
“She was put into the room as a prisoner, and for the third time the false beggar went to the house, asking this time for camotes. The third sister passed through the same experiences as the others, but she was less easily frightened and did not drop the egg and keys when she saw the dead man. Instead, she went into the room and saw her sisters prisoners there. She released them, put them into a large basket, and taking some gold which she found in the room, completely covered them. She collected the pieces of the dead body, put them together, and a handsome man awoke from death. She allowed him to escape from the room, put the basket containing the gold and her sisters into another room, closed room thirteen, and awaited the return of the false beggar.
“When he came and saw that the egg was not broken and the keys were not bloody, he said, ‘You have obeyed me, and we will be married.’ ‘Very well,’ she answered, ‘but first you must carry home for me a basket of gold for my parents. You must not sit down nor stop to rest till you have taken this basket to my home. I shall be watching you from my little window, and if you disobey me, I shall never marry you.’
“So he started out. He found the basket very heavy, and three times he wished to put it down and rest, but each time he heard a voice which seemed to come from the basket, saying, ‘Go on, for I am watching you from my little window; and if you disobey me, I shall never marry you.’ Therefore he went toiling on to the home of the three sisters, and delivered the basket of gold (and the two girls) to the parents.
“When he returned, the man who had been dead but had come back to life killed the false beggar, married the third sister, and they lived happily forever afterward.”