There was a village where everyone was rich except for one poor man, known as the little peasant. He had no cow and no money to buy one, but he and his wife longed for one.
One day, he had an idea. He asked the carpenter to make a wooden calf, painted brown to look real, with its head down as if eating. His wife agreed. The next morning, the little peasant told the cow-herd his calf was too small to walk, so the cow-herd carried it to the pasture. All day, the wooden calf stood as if eating. At night, the cow-herd, not wanting to carry it back, left it. When the little peasant found it missing, he accused the cow-herd of losing it. The mayor ordered the cow-herd to give the peasant a real cow as compensation.
The couple were overjoyed but had no food for the cow, so they had to kill it. The peasant took the skin to town to sell it. On the way, he found a wounded raven and wrapped it in the skin. A storm forced him to seek shelter at a mill. The miller's wife gave him bread and cheese and let him sleep on straw. Soon, the parson arrived for a secret feast with the wife. Hearing this, the peasant pretended to sleep.
Suddenly, the miller returned. His wife hid the feast: wine under a pillow, roast meat in the stove, salad on the bed, cakes under it, and the parson in a cupboard. She told her husband she only had bread and cheese. The miller invited the peasant to join them.
After eating, the miller noticed the skin. The peasant claimed it contained a soothsayer that could reveal four things. He pinched the raven, making it croak, and "translated" its sounds to reveal the hidden wine, meat, salad, and cakes. The terrified wife went to bed. The miller, curious about the fifth prophecy, paid the peasant three hundred thalers. The peasant then said the soothsayer warned of the Devil in the cupboard. The miller opened it, and the parson ran out, mistaken for the Devil. The peasant left at dawn with the money.
With his new wealth, the little peasant built a fine house. The villagers, suspicious, brought him before the mayor. He claimed he got rich by selling a cow's skin for three hundred thalers. Greedy, the villagers killed their own cows to sell the skins but received very little. Enraged, they accused the peasant of trickery. He was sentenced to death by drowning in a barrel full of holes.
As he was led to the water, he recognized the priest as the parson from the mill. He whispered, "I freed you from the cupboard; now free me from the barrel." Then, seeing a shepherd who wanted to be mayor, the peasant cried out that he refused to become mayor by getting in the barrel. The shepherd, eager for the position, offered to take his place. The peasant agreed, sealed the shepherd in the barrel, and took his flock.
The villagers rolled the barrel into the water. Later, the peasant returned with the sheep, claiming he found a land of sheep at the river bottom. The villagers, believing him, jumped in to get their own sheep and drowned. The little peasant, as the sole survivor, inherited the entire village and became rich.