Hitherto, if he saw his brother, he looked the other way, or turned aside, lest he should be asked for help. But the former poor man welcomed him and said: “It gives me joy to have you enter my house, for I have very seldom had the pleasure of seeing you.”
“Things have gone badly with me,” said the older brother, “and now I know not what to do.”
“Well,” said the other, “we will go to the mountains, and very likely you will have the luck to get as rich as ever.”
So they started off together, and when they came to where they could see the castle the younger brother showed his companion the tree from which he had watched the castle. “Climb up among the branches,” said he, “and wait till the dragons that dwell in the castle come out. Count them. If forty-nine come forth you can descend and enter the castle free from fear. But unless the entire forty-nine leave, do not go in.”
While he was looking a number of dragons came out
With these words he turned his steps toward home. His brother watched eagerly from the tree, and by and by he saw the dragons coming forth, and he counted them. But he counted wrong, and instead of saying forty-eight he said forty-nine. Then he scrambled down from the tree, hurried to the castle, and looked about, seeking the treasure, that he might fill his bag. Suddenly he heard a voice say, “So you are the thief and have come back to steal more of our gold!”
He found himself confronted by a dragon that had come out of a near-by room where it had been staying on guard. Immediately it bit off his head, and took both the body and the head and hung them at the entrance to the castle. When the other dragons came home he said to them: “There is no need to keep watch any longer. I have killed the thief and hung him up where he will serve as a warning to all other thieves that may approach our castle.”
After that none of the dragons stayed at home, but each day they went out together.
Two days passed, and the wife of the former rich man got uneasy because her husband did not return. She went to the house of her brother-in-law, and when she told him that her husband had not come back he said he would go and seek him. Off he went, and as soon as he drew near to the castle he climbed the tree and looked and saw his brother’s body hanging at the entrance. Then he waited till the dragons came out. He counted them with great care, and there were forty-nine. After they had gone from sight he went and got his brother’s body and put it in a bag that lay near the entrance. It was the very bag his brother had brought to contain the gold he hoped to get.