How St. Peter Lost His Hair
Everyone knows that Saint Peter is entirely bald, except for a single lock of hair in front that falls over his forehead, but most people do not know the following story that explains how this came to be.

While he and Christ were traveling together they came to a farmhouse where the farmwife was just cooking up some large yeast pancakes in grease. According to others it was noodles.

Saint Peter entered the house to beg for some pancakes, while the Lord waited outside. The farmwife was a good-hearted woman, and she gave Peter three pancakes, fresh from the pan. But Peter was selfish, and in order to gain an advantage when the pancakes were divided up, he quickly hid one of them in his cap, then put it on his head. He pretended that he had received only two pancakes, one of which he gave to the Lord.

The pancake under his cap was still hot, and it began to burn Peter terribly on the head, but he could not do anything about it; he just had to bear the pain.

Later, when he took off his cap, he discovered that the hot pancake had burned into his head a large bald spot, which remained with him as long as he lived. Only the lock of hair that had protruded from the front of his cap was spared. Thus Saint Peter's bald head has one lock of hair in front.
 

Bear Skin
A soldier, having deserted his regiment in the thick of battle, took refuge in the woods. However, the foes of war were soon replaced by the enemies cold, thirst, and hunger. With nowhere to turn for help, he was about to surrender to the powers of despair, when without warning an awful spirit appeared before him. He offered the poor soldier great wealth, if he would but serve this uncanny master for seven years. Seeing no other escape from his misery, the soldier agreed. 

The terms of the pact were quickly stated: For seven years the soldier was to wear only a bearskin robe, both day and night. He was to say no prayers. Neither comb nor shears were to touch his hair and beard. He was not to wash, nor cut his nails, nor blow his nose, nor even wipe his behind. In return, the spirit would provide him with tobacco, food, drink, and an endless supply of money. 

The soldier, who by his very nature was not especially fond of either prayers or of cleanliness, entered into the agreement. He took lodgings in a village inn, and discovered soon enough that his great wealth was ample compensation for his strange looks and ill smell. 

A nobleman frequented this inn. Impressed by Bearskin's lavish and generous expenditures, he presented him with a proposal. "I have three beautiful daughters," he said. "If the terms are right, you may choose any one of them for a bride." 

Bearskin named a sum that was acceptable to the nobleman, and the two set forth to the palace to make the selection. The two older daughters made no attempt to hide their repugnance of the strange suitor, but the youngest unhesitatingly accepted her father's will. Bearskin formalized the betrothal by removing a ring from his own finger and twisting it into two pieces. One piece he gave to his future bride; the other he kept. Saying that soon he would return, he departed. 

The seven years were nearly finished, so a short time later Bearskin did indeed come back for his bride. Now freshly bathed, neatly shorn, elegantly dressed, and riding in a luxurious carriage, he was a suitor worthy of a princess. Identifying himself with his half of the twisted ring, he claimed his bride. 

Beside themselves with envy, and furious that they had squandered their rights to this handsome nobleman, one of the bride's older sisters hanged herself from a tree and the other one drowned herself in a well. Thus the devil gained two souls for the one that he had lost.
 
 

King Bluebeard
Next to a great forest there lived an old man who had three sons and two daughters. Once they were sitting together thinking of nothing when a splendid carriage suddenly drove up and stopped in front of their house. A dignified gentleman climbed from the carriage, entered the house, and engaged the father and his daughters in conversation. Because he especially liked the youngest one, he asked the father if he would not give her to him to be his wife.

This seemed to the father to be a good marriage, and he had long desired to see his daughters taken care of while he was still alive. However, the daughter could not bring herself to say yes, for the strange knight had an entirely blue beard, which caused her to shudder with fear whenever she looked at him.

She went to her brothers, who were valiant knights, and asked them for advice. The brothers thought that she should accept Bluebeard, and they gave her a little whistle, saying, "If you are ever threatened, just blow this whistle, and we will come to your aid!"

Thus she let herself be talked into becoming the strange man's wife, but she did arrange for her sister to accompany her when King Bluebeard took her to his castle.

When the young wife arrived there, there was great joy throughout the entire castle, and King Bluebeard was very happy as well. This continued for about four weeks, and then he said that he was going on a journey. He turned all the keys of the castle over to his wife, saying, "You may go anywhere in the castle, unlock everything, and look at anything you want to, except for one door, to which this little golden key belongs. If you value your life, you are not allowed to open it!"

"Oh no!" she said, adding that she surely would not open that door. But after the king had been away for a while, she could find no rest for constantly thinking about what there might be in the forbidden chamber. She was just about to unlock it when her sister approached her and held her back. However, on the morning of the fourth day, she could no longer resist the temptation, and taking the key she secretly crept to the room, stuck the key into the lock, and opened the door.

Horrified, she saw that the entire room was filled with corpses, all of them women. She wanted to slam the door shut immediately, but the key fell out and into the blood. She quickly picked it up, but it was stained with blood. And however much she rubbed and cleaned it, the stains would not go away. With fear and trembling she went to her sister.

When King Bluebeard finally returned from his journey, he immediately asked for the golden key. Seeing the bloodstains on it, he said, "Wife, why did you not heed my warning? Your hour has now struck! Prepare yourself to die, for you have been in the forbidden room!"

Crying, she went to her sister, who lived upstairs in the castle. While she was bemoaning her fate to her, the sister thought of the whistle that she had received from her brothers, and said, "Give me the whistle! I shall send a signal to our brothers. Perhaps they will be able to help!" And she blew the whistle three times, issuing a bright sound that rang through the woods.

An hour later they heard Bluebeard rustling up the stairs to get his wife and slaughter her. "Oh God, oh God!" she cried out. "Aren't my brothers coming?" She rushed to the door and locked it, then fearfully stood there holding it shut as well.

Bluebeard pounded on the door, crying out that she should open it, and when she did not do so, he tried to break it down.

"Oh sister, oh sister, aren't my brothers coming?" she said to her sister, who was standing at the window looking out into the distance.

She replied, "I don't see anyone yet."

Meanwhile, Bluebeard was breaking the door apart more and more, and the opening was almost large enough for him to get through, when three knights suddenly appeared before the castle. The sister cried from the window as loudly as she could, "Help! Help!" and waved to her brothers.

They stormed up the stairs to where they had heard their sister's cry for help. There they saw King Bluebeard, sword in hand, standing before the broken door, and they heard their sister screaming inside the room. Immediately sensing what he was up to, they quickly ran their daggers into his breast and killed him.

When the brothers learned what the godless king was going to do to their sister, and that he had already killed so many women, they destroyed his castle, so that there was not one stone remaining on another one. They took with them all his treasures, and lived happily with their sisters in their father's house.
 

Choosing a Bride
A man wanted to select a wife for himself from among three sisters, all of whom pleased him greatly. He invited them all to eat their noon meal with him at an inn. Wanting to find himself an industrious and efficient housewife, he decided to test them on how they ate cheese.

When her cheese was served the eldest cut the rind off so thick that it included a lot of good cheese, which was thus lost. "She will waste too much and throw out everything," thought the man. "You cannot choose her."

Then the second sister received her cheese, and she ate her piece without cutting off any of the rind. "She is not the wife for you either," thought the man. "She will be disorderly."

Then the youngest sister was served her cheese. She scraped her piece off cleanly and carefully, and then ate it. Thus the suitor thought, "She is the right one!" and he did indeed marry her.
 

The Iron Chest
Once upon a time there was a poor peasant. One morning before sunrise he rode into the forest to cut wood. There, under an oak tree, he met a very old woman. She was standing before a large iron chest, and she said to him, "You can redeem me and make yourself lucky! This iron chest is filled to the top with hard thalers. Take it home with you, but tell no one a solitary word about it, or it will bring you misfortune."

The man was delighted to hear these words, and the old woman was also so friendly as to take hold of the chest and help him load it onto his wagon. He thanked her kindly and rode back home.

"Mother," he said as the wagon pulled up to the door, "I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but you are my dear wife, so the promise doesn't apply to you."

"That's right, father," said the peasant's wife with curiosity. "I'll be as silent as the grave. What is it then? Why are you coming home so early from the woods?"

"That's exactly what it is!" answered the peasant. "I found a large chest full of money under an oak tree. We shall never want again. But be sure to hold your tongue. Now go and fix us something good to eat. I've had no meat for a week now."

With that they lifted the chest from the wagon and carried it into the cellar. Then the peasant's wife took a thaler out of the iron chest, bought some meat, and roasted it on the hearth. What joy! However, her neighbor had hardly smelled the delicious odor when she hurried by, sniffed, and said, "Good day, kinswoman, what are you cooking?"

"Oh, neighbor," replied the woman, "I can't tell anyone, but of course you can keep a secret. When my husband was driving into the forest to cut wood, he found a large iron chest full of money beneath an oak tree."

"That is wonderful," said the kinswoman. "You told the right person, for I won't repeat it to a soul!" Then she ran back to her house. 

Not long afterward her brother's wife came to visit her from the neighboring farm. "Sister-in-law, do you know what has happened?" she asked her. "But you must be able to hold your tongue!"

"Oh, as though I were a blabbermouth!"

"I know, and that's why I said that. Our neighbor from over there, the little peasant, while he was cutting wood in the forest he found a large chest of gold under an oak tree."

The sister-in-law did indeed hold her tongue and carried the story to the sexton's wife, and before the sun went down it had found its way to the magistrate. He summoned the peasant before him and said, "I know it all! You stole a chest of money, and it is in your cellar. Turn over the money!"

"No, my lord," answered the peasant. "That is not true. I am as poor as a church mouse and am an honest fellow. I've stolen nothing."

"That will be determined, old friend," replied the magistrate. "Your wife herself said so."

"Oh, my lord, my wife is crazy."

"Go now! The court meets in two weeks. At that time we will see if your wife is crazy."

The peasant did not feel well as he left the magistrate's estate, and he thought of the words the old woman had spoken to him under the oak tree. But he did not loose courage. He hurried home, took a handful of thalers out of the chest, hitched up his wagon, and drove into town. There he bought all the bread rolls that the bakers had in stock, so that he had a good dozen bushels of them to load into his wagon. He drove back home with them and scattered the rolls all about the yard, while his wife was in the kitchen cooking something good. He threw a few pecks of them onto the roof and laid a few of them just outside the gate as well. 

Then he ran into the kitchen shouting, "Woman, you are just like all the others! No sooner do we get a little money in our pockets than you let the housekeeping float off into the blue! The good Lord let it rain bread rolls outside, and you won't even bend over to pick them up!"

"Man, are you stupid?" replied the peasant's wife. "It rained rolls?"

"It certainly did. Go see for yourself," the man replied.

So the peasant woman looked out the window, and when she saw the many thousands of rolls in the yard she was overjoyed. She ran outside and for the next few hours gathered them, filling three large meat tubs.

The next day the peasant said, "Listen, woman, when I was recently in town I learned that our king by mistake has recruited new soldiers with long pointed iron beaks. They especially pick at womenfolk with them, sticking them to death. They are supposed to be coming through our village today. I will tip the washtub over you, and they won't find you. They won't find me either. I'll hide in the attic."

Filled with fear, the peasant's wife sat down, and the peasant tipped the washtub over her. Then he went into the chicken coop, caught all the chickens and carried them into the house, then scattered barley all around the washtub and on top of it. Then peck, peck, peck, the chickens ate up all the barley until not a kernel was to be found. Then they all ran back into the yard. Then the peasant picked up the tub and said to his wife, "Mother, they have left the village!"

"Oh, father, I was so afraid," said the peasant's wife. "Oh, how they were knocking: peck, peck, peck! with their long iron beaks! But I didn't make a sound, and they didn't find me."

"Thank God, they didn't find me either!" said the peasant, and that was that.

When the two weeks had passed, the peasant and his wife were summoned to court. The peasant denied everything, but when the judges turned sternly to his wife, she swore by everything good and true that she had told her neighbor the truth.

"Don't believe the woman, my lords," cried the peasant. "She is not all there upstairs! -- And, mother, what else happened when I brought home the chest?"

"Don't you remember, father? It was the day before the good Lord let it rain bread rolls!"

The judges shook their heads, and the peasant said, "Am I not right? She is crazy!"

"I am supposed to be crazy?" continued the woman eagerly. "Don't you remember, father? It was two days before our king's new soldiers with the long pointed iron beaks came through the village and to our farm, and peck, peck, peck, knocked on the washtub that you had tipped over on top of me!"

"Peasant, you are right!" said the judges. Your wife is not all there. Go home with her and take care that she doesn't cause any harm."

Thus peasant was out of trouble, and he went back to his village with his wife. There he let her taste his buckthorn stick, and it was so good for her that she never gossiped again. Little by little they used the money in the iron chest to buy one piece of land after the other next to their farm, and finally became very wealthy. And if they didn't die, they are still alive.
 

The Fox and the Crab
The fox went out one beautiful morning, and on the road he met a crab. Seeing the fox, the crab called out loudly and friendly, "Good morning, fox!"

This angered the proud fox. "What do you want with me, you miserable little rascal?"

"What? I can't even wish you a good morning? Don't be so arrogant. I may be small, but I can beat you in cleverness."

"Just listen to the twit! You more clever than I?" said the fox scornfully.

"For sure, and I am faster afoot than you are as well."

The fox could not let that go unchallenged, so he entered into a wager with the crab. The one of them who could run the fastest would receive a shiny taler from the other one.

So they both went out to a meadow. Arriving there, the fox positioned himself next to the crab, but the latter said, "I'll give you a head start of one whole step. Then after I count to three, take off."

The fox moved one step forward and got ready to start. His beautiful bushy tail hung down to the ground. The crab carefully fastened himself onto the tail, then counted, "One, two, three!"

The fox ran until the meadow shook, and when he arrived at the goal he turned around lightning fast to see where the crab was. But the crab had quickly dropped into the grass, and said, "What are you looking for, fox? I've been here a long time!"

What else could the fox do? He had to admit defeat and pay the taler.