In the countryside lived an old peasant couple in a simple thatched cottage. Though poor, they were content with what they had, including their horse.
One market day, the wife urged her husband to take the horse to sell or trade it, assuring him, "You will never do anything wrong." Under the blazing sun, the peasant set off.
First, he met a man with a fine cow. Thinking it would give good milk, he traded his horse for the cow. Satisfied, he could have gone home, but he decided to continue to the market.
Soon, he saw a man with a fat sheep. Imagining it grazing by their ditch and providing wool, he traded the cow for the sheep. Walking on, he encountered a man with a large goose. Remembering his wife's wish for a goose, he traded the sheep for it.
Entering the town, he saw a hen tied in a field. Believing it could fend for itself and lay eggs, he traded the goose for the hen. Tired and thirsty, he headed to a tavern. At the door, he met a seller with a sack of mashed apples for pigs. Recalling their own barren apple tree, the peasant traded his hen for the apples.
Inside the crowded tavern, he placed the sack near a hot stove. The sizzling sound drew the attention of two wealthy Englishmen. Upon hearing the peasant's story of trading down from a horse to a bag of apples, they laughed, certain his wife would be furious. They bet him one hundred and eleven pounds that he would be scolded or beaten.
The peasant accepted, betting his apples, his wife, and himself. They all rode in a cart to his cottage.
"Good evening, wife! I have traded," he said.
"You know what you have done," she replied, embracing him. She then listened joyfully to each trade:
- The horse for a cow? "Now we'll have milk and cheese!"
- The cow for a sheep? "Even better! We have grass for it and will have wool for socks!"
- The sheep for a goose? "We can fatten it for St. Martin's festival!"
- The goose for a hen? "It will lay eggs for chicks!"
- Finally, the hen for a bag of mashed apples? "Now I must kiss you!" she exclaimed. She explained she had wanted to borrow some caraway seeds from a neighbor to make his favorite pancakes, but the neighbor's wife had refused, boasting she had nothing but a single mashed apple. "Now I can lend her ten of ours!"
The Englishmen were amazed. "Always from bad to worse, yet always happy. That is good fortune!" They paid the peasant the 111 pounds, for he had received not blows, but a kiss.
Indeed, a wife who believes her husband is the wisest and always right will surely gain.