A certain tailor, great at boasting but poor at doing, decided to travel the world. He left his workshop and wandered far and wide.
Once, he saw in the distance a steep hill, and behind it, a tower reaching to the clouds from a dark forest. "Thunder and lightning!" cried the tailor. Driven by curiosity, he approached boldly. To his astonishment, the tower had legs! It leaped over the hill and stood before him as a powerful giant.
"What do you want here, you tiny fly's leg?" thundered the giant.
"I wish to look about and see if I can earn my bread in this forest," whimpered the tailor.
"If that is your aim," said the giant, "you may work for me."
"What wages shall I receive?"
"You shall hear. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, and in leap year, one more. Does that suit you?"
"All right," replied the tailor, thinking to himself, "I must adapt to circumstances; I will try to escape as soon as I can."
Then the giant said, "Go, little ragamuffin, and fetch me a jug of water."
"Had I not better bring the well itself, and the spring too?" boasted the tailor, as he went with the pitcher.
"What! The well and the spring too?" growled the giant into his beard. He was rather simple and began to fear. "That knave is no fool; he has a wizard in him. Be on your guard, old Hans, this is no ordinary servant."
When the tailor returned with water, the giant ordered him to cut a couple of blocks of wood.
"Why not the whole forest at once, with one stroke? Young and old, rough and smooth?" asked the little tailor.
"What! The whole forest... and the well and spring too?" muttered the credulous giant, now more terrified. "He can do more than bake apples! Be on your guard, old Hans!"
After the wood was brought, the giant commanded him to shoot two or three wild boars for supper.
"Why not a thousand at one shot?" inquired the ostentatious tailor.
"What!" cried the timid giant in great terror. "Let it be for tonight. Go and rest."
The giant was so alarmed he lay awake all night, plotting how to rid himself of this accursed sorcerer. Time brings counsel. The next morning, they went to a marsh surrounded by willow trees.
"Listen, tailor," said the giant. "Sit on one of these willow branches. I wish to see if you are heavy enough to bend it down."
The tailor sat on the branch, held his breath, and made himself so heavy that the bough bent. But when he had to breathe again (for unfortunately, he had not brought his goose—implying a tool for weighting), the branch sprang back and hurled him so high into the air that he was never seen again, much to the giant's delight. If the tailor hasn't fallen down, he must be hovering about in the air.