‘Have you been feeding it with roast meat? I forgot to warn you that you must not do this.’
‘Well, it is my fault then,’ said the merchant. ‘But will you sell me that pot?’
‘I have already lost my famous cat. It is not likely that I shall now let you have this pot, in which I can make a dish of porridge with only one grain.’
However, they began bargaining, and at last the countryman sold his pot for a large sum. When the merchant reached home, he consoled his wife by telling her that from one barleycorn she could now make as much porridge as she wanted; he then set out again. When he returned, his wife complained that the pot was of no use. So he called again on the countryman, to ask for an explanation.
The countryman, foreseeing that the merchant would come, got two hares exactly alike, and tied ribbons of the same colour round their necks. He left one hare at home, and took the other out into the fields with him. He told his wife that if the merchant came, she was to send him out to the field, and in an hour bring him a dinner consisting of two boiled fowls, a roast turkey, ten eggs, wine, and bread.
The merchant came, and the woman sent him to the field where her husband was working. In reply to the reproaches of the merchant, the countryman said: ‘You have probably made some stupid mistake with the pot as you did with the cat. But let us sit down and dine while we talk it over, for I cannot suffer you to come to me without feeding you.’ The merchant looked round and said: ‘How can we get anything to eat out here in the fields?’
The peasant went to a bush, untied the hare, and said to it: ‘Run at once, little hare, to my wife, and tell her to come with you and bring us a pair of fowls, a roast turkey, ten eggs, wine, and bread.’
The hare ran off as fast as it could. It is easy to understand the astonishment of the merchant when the woman came with the hare, bringing all that the man had ordered. When they had eaten, the merchant said: ‘You have cheated me about the cat and the pot, but I forgive you if you let me have the hare.’ The countryman refused at first, but finally agreed to sell the hare for a large sum.[1]
On his way home with the hare, the merchant met some friends whom he asked to sup with him, but seeing that he would not arrive until it was late, he ordered the hare to run and tell his wife that he was coming with some guests, and that she was to prepare supper. When he and his friends reached home, they found the house quite dark, and had difficulty in rousing the wife from her sleep. She told him that no hare had been there, and that she did not know what he was talking about.
The merchant was now furious, and determined to punish the countryman severely. But the countryman guessed what would happen, and arranged with his wife what should be done. He took the intestine of a small calf, filled it with blood, and tied it round his wife’s neck, telling her to cover it up with a kerchief. The merchant came in, and without saying a word rushed at the countryman, who, in his turn, attacked his wife, accusing her of being the guilty party, and with a knife pierced the intestine under her throat. She fell on the ground, and pretended that she was dying. The merchant was alarmed, and cried: ‘What have you done, you wretched man? I would willingly have lost the money rather than have this innocent blood shed.’ The countryman answered: ‘That is my affair. Though I have killed my wife I can raise her to life again.’ ‘I believe you no longer,’ said the merchant, ‘but if you perform this miracle I shall forgive you all.’ The countryman approached his wife with the knife in his hand, muttered something, and his wife opened her eyes, and, to the surprise of the merchant, rose up.