Once upon a time, there was a proud princess who challenged her suitors with a riddle. Whoever solved it could marry her, but those who failed were ridiculed and sent away. Three tailors decided to try their luck: two experienced ones confident in their success, and a third, a seemingly foolish young man who knew little of his trade but was determined.
The two older tailors mocked the young one, but he set off undaunted. When they stood before the princess, she posed her riddle: "I have two kinds of hair on my head. What colors are they?"
The first guessed black and white; the second guessed brown and red. Both were wrong. The young tailor then stepped forward and boldly declared, "The princess has silver and gold hair."
He was correct. Shocked, the princess devised another challenge to avoid marriage: he must spend the night in the stable with a ferocious bear. The young tailor, undeterred, cheerfully accepted.
That evening, he faced the bear. He calmly cracked walnuts, tricking the bear with pebbles instead. Then, he played a fiddle, making the bear dance. Pretending to teach the bear to play, he tricked it into placing its paws in a vice, which he then tightened, trapping the bear. The tailor slept peacefully while the bear growled.
The next morning, the princess was astonished to find the tailor alive and well. Bound by her promise, she had to marry him. As they rode to church in a carriage, the two jealous older tailors freed the bear. It charged after the carriage in a rage.
With quick thinking, the young tailor stuck his legs out the window, pointed to the vice, and threatened to trap the bear again. The frightened bear ran away. The tailor and the princess were married, and he lived happily with her ever after.