Once upon a time there was a rich king who had three daughters, and they went for a walk in the garden of the palace every day, and the king was very fond of all the beautiful trees, especially one apple tree, and if anyone plucked an apple from the tree, he would curse him to go to eighteen levels of hell.

Whenever there is a good harvest, the apples on this tree are bright red as blood. The three daughters went under the tree every day to check if the wind would blow the apples off, but they never found one, and the apples hanging from the tree almost crushed the tree, and the branches had fallen to the ground. The king's youngest daughter, who was desperate for an apple, said to her sisters: "Our father loves us so much that he will not curse us to hell, I believe he does so only to strangers." ”

As she spoke, she picked a big apple and ran to her sisters, saying, "Taste it, my dear young ladies, I have never tasted anything so delicious in my life." ”

Her two sisters also took a few bites of the apple, and just then all three of them sank deep into the ground, where they could no longer hear the rooster crow.

At noon, the king wanted to call them back to dinner, but he could not find them anywhere. He searched the palace and gardens, but could not find them. Feeling in great trouble, he told the nation that whoever could get his daughters back would marry one of them.

They were kind, beautiful and generous, so they were loved by everyone, and there were many, countless young people who traveled all over the country to find them.

Three young hunters also went out to look for it, and when they came to the eighth day, they came to a large castle, and found in it beautiful dwellings, and in one room there was a table on which fine dishes were arranged, and the dishes were steaming, but there was not a single person in the whole castle, nor was there any movement. They waited there for half a day, and the food was still steaming, and at last they were really hungry, so they sat down to eat, and they agreed to live in the castle, but to draw lots to choose one to stay in the house, and the other two to go out in search of the king's daughter. They started drawing lots, and the result was that the boss won the lottery. The next day, the two younger brothers went out to look for them, and the eldest stayed in the house.

At noon, a very small dwarf came and asked for a piece of bread, and the hunter found a loaf of bread and cut it for him, but the dwarf did not take it, and the bread fell to the ground, and the dwarf begged the hunter to pick up the piece of bread and give it to him, and when the hunter stooped down to do so, the dwarf took a stick, grabbed him by the hair, and beat him severely.

The next day, the second child stayed in the house, and the same happened to him. In the evening, when the other two returned, the eldest asked the second, "How are you doing today?" ”

"Hey, that's bad luck," he said, and they whispered their bitterness to each other, but they didn't tell the third brother, who didn't like him at all, and often called him Silly Hans, because he didn't know anything about the world.

On the third day, when the third brother stayed in the house, the dwarf came again and asked for a piece of bread. When the third child gave it to him, as before, he let the bread fall again, and then let the third child pick it up for him. But Hans said, "Why can't you choose yourself?" If you are not willing to put in even this little bit of labor, you are not entitled to daily food. ”

The dwarf was so angry that he insisted that he choose, but Hans not only did not do it, but grabbed the dwarf and beat him with pleasure. Then the dwarf cried out, "Stop, stop, if you spare me, I will tell you where the king's daughter is." ”

When Hans heard this, he let him go, and the dwarf told Hans that he was a land god, and that there were thousands like him, and that he could take Hans to the hiding place of the king's daughters if he wanted to go with him. So they came to a deep well, which was a dry well.

The dwarf told Hans that he knew that Hans's companions were dishonest to him, so if he wanted to send the king's daughters back, he would have to do it alone. His two elder brothers would be glad to know that the king's daughters had been discovered, but they would not take any labor or risk. So Hans had to take a large basket himself, and he had to sit in the basket with his hunting knife and a bell and sink to the bottom of the well. There were three houses at the bottom of the well, and in each room there was a princess, and each princess was catching lice for a dragon with many heads, and he had to cut off the head of each dragon. With that, the dwarf vanished.

In the evening the two brothers came back and asked him how he was, and he said, "Very good." And told them that they had seen a dwarf at noon this day, and that the dwarf had come and begged him for a piece of bread, and he gave him some, but the dwarf had let the bread fall to the ground, and asked Hans to pick it up for him. When he did not agree, the dwarf began to scold him, and he became angry, and beat the dwarf, and the beaten dwarf told him where the king's daughters were hiding.

After listening, the two brothers were so angry that their faces turned green and yellow. The next morning, they went to the well together, and drew lots to determine who would be the first to sit in the basket, and the eldest won the lot again, and he sat in the basket with a bell. Then he said, "As soon as I ring the bell, you will quickly pull me up." ”

As soon as he went down a little bit, he began to ring the bell, and they immediately pulled him up.

The second child sat in the basket for the second, but he, like the eldest one, came up quickly.

It was the third brother's turn, and he went all the way down to the bottom of the well. He came out of the basket, drew his knife, went to the first door and stood still, heard the dragon's snoring very loudly, and slowly opened the door, and saw a princess sitting there, with the nine heads of the hydra resting on her lap, and she was catching lice for the dragon. He raised his sword and cut off all nine of the dragon's heads, and the princess jumped to her feet, put her arms around his neck, and kissed him passionately, and hung her pure gold bradice on his chest. Then he rescued the second princess who caught lice for the five-headed dragon, and finally he rescued the little princess who caught lice for the four-headed dragon.

The three princesses were very happy and hugged him and kissed him incessantly. Then he rang the bell vigorously so that the people above could hear it. He first loaded the princesses into the basket one by one and pulled them up. But when it was his turn, he remembered what the dwarf had told his companion to do him harm. So he took a large stone at the bottom of the well and put it into the basket, and when the basket rose into the air, the brothers on the ground cut the rope, and the basket and the stone fell to the bottom of the well.

Thinking he was dead, they fled with the three princesses and forced them to promise to tell their father that they had rescued them. So they went to the king and demanded that each of them take a princess.

Meanwhile, the youngest hunter was wandering about the three rooms in trepidation, no longer hoping that he would survive. When he saw the flute hanging on the wall, he said, "Where are you hanging it?" No one is happy here. He looked at the dragon's head and said, "You can't help me now." "He walked back and forth for a long time, and the ground made him slippery on it.

In desperation, he took the flute from the wall and blew a few notes, and suddenly several dwarfs appeared, and then every time he blew a note, a dwarf appeared. So he kept blowing until the house was full of dwarfs.

They all asked him what he was going to do, and he said he wanted to go back to the ground under the blue sky. When the dwarfs heard this, they grabbed every hair that grew on his head and flew with him to the ground. As soon as he came up, he immediately went to the palace, and at that time a princess was preparing for a wedding, and he went into the room of the king and his three daughters. The princesses fainted at the sight of him.

Seeing this, the king was furious and ordered him to be thrown into a cell immediately, as the king believed that he had harmed the children. The princesses woke up, and they asked the king to let him go, and the king asked why, but they did not dare to say, and the king told them to speak to the hearth. The king himself went out, stood outside the door and listened, and learned what was going on. Then he sent his two older brothers to the gallows and married the little princess to the third child.

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