Rumpelstiltskin

A miller had a beautiful daughter. One day, to boast to the king, the miller said, "My daughter can spin straw into gold." The king had the girl brought to the palace and shut her in a room full of straw: "Turn all this into gold by morning, or you lose your head."

The girl wept. Suddenly the door opened and a small, strange man came in. "What will you give me if I spin the straw into gold?" "My necklace." The man sat down at the spinning wheel; whirr, whirr, whirr, by morning all the straw was gold. The king wanted a bigger room. This time the girl gave her ring. On the third night the king said, "If you do this too, I will marry you." The girl had nothing left to give. The little man said, "When you are queen, give me your first child." In despair, the girl agreed.

The girl became queen. A year later she had a baby. The little man came: "Keep your promise." The queen begged. The little man said, "If you find out my name within three days, the child is yours."

The queen had every name in the land collected. On the first day: "Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar?" No. On the second day, strange names: "Ribs, Sheepshanks, Spindleshins?" No. On the third day a messenger came back from the forest: "In front of a hut I saw a little man dancing around a fire; he was singing: Today I bake, tomorrow I brew, the next day the queen's child I take; nobody knows that my name is Rumpelstiltskin!"

The little man came. The queen said, "Is your name Kunz? Heinz?" "No!" "Or is it... Rumpelstiltskin?" The little man turned scarlet with rage and stamped his foot so hard that he sank into the ground up to his waist; then he pulled himself out and fled into the forest. He was never seen again.

The queen hugged her baby. As for the miller: he never boasted again. Because one lie could bring a strange man from the forest to your door.