Prevod

Once two princes went out in search of adventure and fell into such a wild, reckless way of life that they never came home again. The youngest, who was called Simpleton, set out to look for his brothers. But when at last he found them, they mocked him for thinking he could make his way in the world with so little wit, when the two of them, who were so much cleverer, could not manage it.

The three went on together and came to an anthill. The two elder brothers wanted to stir it up and watch the little ants scurry about in terror, carrying away their eggs, but Simpleton said, "Leave the creatures in peace. I will not let you disturb them!"

They went farther and came to a lake where a great many ducks were swimming. The two brothers wanted to catch a few and roast them, but Simpleton would not allow it and said, "Leave the creatures in peace. I will not let you kill them!"

At last they came to a bees' nest, so full of honey that it ran down the trunk of the tree. The two wanted to light a fire beneath the tree and suffocate the bees so that they could take the honey. But Simpleton stopped them once again and said, "Leave the creatures in peace. I will not let you burn them!"

At last the three brothers came to a castle where all the horses in the stables were made of stone, and not a soul was to be seen. They went through all the stables until they came to a door at the very end, fastened with three locks. In the middle of the door was a little shutter through which they could look into the room. There they saw a little gray man sitting at a table. They called to him once, then twice, but he did not hear them. At last they called a third time, and he rose, undid the locks, and came out. He did not say a word, but led them to a richly laden table, and when they had eaten and drunk, he took each of them to a separate bedchamber.

The next morning the little gray man came to the eldest, beckoned to him, and led him to a stone tablet. On it were written three tasks by which the castle could be freed from its enchantment. The first was this: in the forest, beneath the moss, lay the princess's pearls, a thousand in all. They had to be gathered, and if even a single pearl was still missing at sunset, whoever had searched for them would be turned to stone. The eldest went out and searched all day, but when the day was over, he had found only a hundred. What was written on the tablet came to pass: he was turned to stone. The following day the second brother tried his luck, but he fared little better than the eldest. He found no more than two hundred pearls and was turned to stone. At last it was Simpleton's turn, and he searched among the moss, but the pearls were so hard to find, and the work went so slowly, that he sat down on a stone and wept. As he sat there, the king of the ants, whose life he had once saved, came with five thousand ants, and before long the little creatures had found all the pearls together and carried them into a heap.

The second task was to fetch the key to the princess's bedchamber from the lake. When Simpleton came to the lake, the ducks whose lives he had once saved swam up, dived beneath the water, and brought the key up from the depths.

The third task was the hardest: from among the king's three sleeping daughters, he had to choose the youngest and dearest. But they looked exactly alike, and there was no difference between them except that, before falling asleep, they had eaten different sweet things: the eldest a piece of sugar, the second a little syrup, and the youngest a spoonful of honey. Then the queen of the bees whom Simpleton had saved from the fire came and tasted the lips of all three. At last she settled on the lips of the one who had eaten honey, and so the prince knew which was the right one.

Then the spell was broken, everyone awoke from their enchanted sleep, and all who had been turned to stone regained their human form. Simpleton married the youngest and dearest princess and became king after her father's death, while his two brothers married the other two sisters.