Hans wished to put his son to learn a trade, so he went into the church and prayed to know which would be most advantageous. A voice from behind the altar said, "Thieving, thieving." Believing it was God's will, Hans told his son to learn thieving and set out to find a teacher.
They journeyed into a great forest and found a cottage where an old woman lived. She directed them to her son, a master thief. The master agreed to teach the boy for a year under a strange condition: if Hans could recognize his son at year's end, the lesson would be free; if not, he must pay two hundred thalers.
The father left, and the son learned witchcraft and thieving thoroughly. When the year was nearly over, Hans grew anxious about how to contrive to recognize his transformed son. A little dwarf he met advised him to take a basket of bread and stand beneath the chimney, where a little bird peeping from a basket would be his son.
Hans did as told. He threw bread before the basket, the bird emerged, and he recognized his son. The master thief, astonished, cried, "The devil must have prompted you!" The son urged, "Father, let us go," and they departed.
On the journey home, the son transformed into a greyhound so his father could sell him for thirty thalers. Once sold, the dog leaped from the carriage and returned to his human form.
The next day, at a fair, the son became a beautiful horse for his father to sell for a hundred thalers, warning him to remove the bridle after the sale. The father forgot, and the master thief bought the horse. Trapped in the stable, the horse pleaded with a maid to remove the bridle. She did, and he turned into a sparrow and flew away.
The master thief, now a wizard, gave chase as another sparrow. They battled through transformations: casting lots, becoming fish, and finally, the master turned into a cock, and the youth became a fox. The fox bit off the cock's head, and the master died, remaining dead to this day.