A certain tailor had a son, no bigger than a thumb, who was called Thumbling. Despite his size, he was courageous and told his father he wished to see the world. His father gave him a darning-needle sword sealed with wax for his journey.
Before leaving, Thumbling hopped into the kitchen to see the final meal his mother had cooked. As he peered into the steaming dish on the hearth, the vapor carried him up the chimney. He rode the steam through the air before gently landing on the ground, now truly in the wide world.
He apprenticed with a master tailor but complained about the poor food, threatening to write a protest on the door. The angry mistress tried to swat him, but Thumbling nimbly hid under a thimble, in a table crevice, and inside a drawer, mocking her all the while. She eventually caught him and drove him out.
Journeying on, Thumbling met robbers in a forest who enlisted him to steal the king's treasure. He slipped through a crack into the treasury, but a guard mistook him for a spider. His companion spared him, and Thumbling proceeded to throw coins out the window to the robbers. When the king arrived, Thumbling hid. Later, as he resumed work, the guards heard the coins clinking and rushed in. Thumbling outwitted them by hiding under coins and taunting them from different corners until they grew weary and left. He completed the theft, riding the last coin out the window. The impressed robbers offered him the position of captain, but he declined, taking only a single kreuzer as his share.
He continued his travels, working briefly before becoming a servant at an inn. The maids despised him because he secretly witnessed and reported their thefts. To get rid of him, one mowed him up with the grass and fed the bundle to a cow. Swallowed whole, Thumbling found himself in darkness. During milking, he cried out, but his voice was drowned out. Hearing the cow was to be slaughtered, he shouted clearly to be let out, but the master couldn't locate him.
The next day, during butchering, Thumbling ended up in the sausage meat. He shouted warnings to the butcher not to chop too deep and managed to dodge the knife. He was then stuffed into a black pudding, which was hung in the chimney to smoke. Months later, when the pudding was served, he seized his chance and jumped out.
Leaving the inn, Thumbling was soon snapped up by a fox. He bargained for his freedom, promising the fox all the fowl in his father's yard. The fox carried him home, where his overjoyed father gladly gave up the chickens to have his son back. Thumbling also gave his father the kreuzer he had earned.