Town Musicians of Bremen

Once upon a time, there was a man who had a donkey. The donkey was old and couldn’t do the work he had done before. The man decided to send him away, but the donkey learned this one day before and ran away that night. “I can be a town musician,” he thought and started walking to Bremen. On the way, he saw a very tired, old hunting dog. The donkey asked, “Why are you so tired? What happened?” The dog answered, “I’m very old, and I can’t hunt like I used to. My master wanted to kill me, so I ran away.”

The donkey had an idea and asked, “Why don’t you come with me to the town? I’ll play the guitar and you can play the drums.” The dog liked the idea, and they went together. While on the way, they saw a sad cat near the road. They stopped and asked, “What happened?” The cat answered,

“I am old now. My teeth aren’t sharp. I don’t want to chase mice. I just want to sit near the stove and purr. My mistress wanted to drown me in the river, so I ran away.” The donkey said, “Come with us to Bremen. You can be a town musician there. You can join our orchestra and sing.” The cat agreed and joined them. They arrived at a farmyard and saw a rooster near the gate. The donkey asked, “What are you up to?” The rooster answered, “I’m ge­ing old, so my lady wanted to eat me in her soup, so I ran away.” The rooster also joined the team as a singer, and they kept walking.

Soon, they arrived in a forest and lay down under the trees to have some rest. They were so hungry. They saw a house and decided to walk to the house, but there was one thing they didn’t know about the house: it belonged to some robbers!

When they reached the house, the donkey looked in and saw a table with delicious foods on it. They said, “If we perform, they may give us some food.” The donkey stood with his front hooves on the window, the dog jumped on his back, the cat climbed onto the dog, and finally the rooster flew up and sat on the cat's head. They started to sing a song, but the donkey lost his balance, and they broke the window. The robbers got really scared and ran into the forest. The animals went in the house and ate and drank. They were very tired and soon fell asleep.

At night, the robbers saw the light coming from the house. Two of them came back home, but when they walked in, the dog jumped and bit their legs. The donkey kicked them, the cat scratched their faces, and the rooster started crowing. The robbers were terrified and ran away again. When they found their friend in the forest, they told the whole story. They said

“A witch scratched our faces with her fingernails, a man stabbed us in the legs, a monster hit us, and a judge was calling us from the roof.”

The robbers didn’t see the animals and thought all of them were different creatures. After that time, the robbers were too scared to go back to the house, and the four Bremen Musicians lived there happily ever after.