“Suppose, I were to tie your thumbs together behind your back with a silken cord, could you break it?” asked the sister.
The Prince bade her try, and he put his hands behind him, and she tied his thumbs together with a silken cord the robber had given her. But no sooner did the Prince strain with his thumbs against the cord than it snapped in two and dropped from him.
“Sister, you must bind me with something stouter than the cord if you would hold me,” said the brother.
The next day the Prince went hunting again, and as soon as he had gone, the girl went down to the cellar to talk to the robber. “You must give me something stronger than that to bind him with,” said the stepsister. “He broke the cord as though it were no more than a spider’s web.”
The robber gave her a cord twice as strong.
“Now see if that will hold him,” said he.
When the Prince came home that evening and he and the girl sat together at supper, she again began to talk of his strength.
“Here is a cord that is twice as strong as the other. If I tied your thumbs together behind your back, could you break this also?” she asked of him.
The brother told her to try. She tied his thumbs together as before with the second cord the robber had given her, but he snapped this also in two the moment he strained against it.
“Sister, you will need a stronger cord than that if you would hold me,” said he.