A fairy was once wandering about disguised as a poor old woman. Night fell as she walked along a country lane. She went past fields and woods until she came to two houses.
One, large and beautiful, belonged to a rich man. The other was a small cottage belonging to a poor man.
The fairy thought, “It will be no trouble for the rich man to give me shelter.”
So she went to his door and knocked. He opened the door and called out,
“Who is there? What do you want?”
“I have lost my way, and night is near,” said the fairy. “Please could you give me shelter?“
The rich man looked her up and down. Then he shook his head and said,
“I cannot take you in. If I let in every poor man and woman who knocks at my door, I'll soon be a beggar myself. Go away.”
Then he shut the door and left her outside.

She turned her back on his house and went to the small cottage. As soon as she knocked, the poor man opened the door and invited her in.
“You look tired,” he said. “It is already late. You must spend the night with us.”

His wife then came forward.
“We have not much, good woman,” she said. “But what we have we will share, with all our hearts.”
There were some potatoes cooking on the fire, and the woman brought out a bowl of bread and milk. The supper tasted good because it was seasoned with peace and happiness.

When bedtime came, the wife called her husband aside.
“Dear husband,” she said, “let us make a bed of straw for ourselves. Then this poor woman can lie in our bed and rest. She is old, and, after walking the whole day, she must be tired.”
“With all my heart,“ said the husband.
The fairy did not want them to do this, but they would not take “no”. So she rested in their bed, and they slept on a bundle of straw.

In the morning the wife got up and cooked breakfast. The sun shone into the room, and the faces of the man and the woman were as bright as the day.
After breakfast the fairy thanked them and said goodbye.
But at the door she turned and said:
“You were kind to me when you thought I was poor and could do nothing in return. To show you that I have both the will and the power to help you, I will grant you three wishes.”
“What more can I wish,” asked the husband, “than that we two, as long as we live, may be well and strong, and that we have enough food to eat? I cannot think of a third wish.”

“Would you not like a new house?” asked the fairy, smiling.
“Oh, yes,” cried the ditcher and his wife, “that we would. With these three wishes granted, we want nothing more.”
The fairy changed the old house into a new one and then went on her way, promising that their other wishes would also be granted.

Around noon the rich man happened to look out of his window. To his surprise, he saw the new cottage. He stared at it for a long time.
Then he called his wife and said:
“Yesterday there was a poor old cottage across the road. Today there is a pretty new one in the same place. Run over and ask how this came to pass.”
The wife went and asked the ditcher, “How, in one night, did you get a new house in place of your old one?”

“I will tell you,“ he said.
“Yesterday evening a poor woman came to our door and asked for shelter for the night. This morning she told us that she was a fairy and would grant us three wishes. We wished for health and daily food, and then she changed our house into this new and beautiful cottage.”

The rich man's wife ran back to tell her husband this news.
“I could kick myself!” he cried. “If only I had known that she was a fairy! Why, she came to my door first, poor old beggar that she seemed. She asked me to take her in, and I said ‘no.’

“What a pity!” said his wife. “But hurry and get on your horse and ride after her. If you overtake her, beg her to grant three wishes for us as well.”

The rich man saddled his best horse and rode as fast as he could after the fairy. At last, he overtook her. He spoke very gently and kindly. “I hope you are not angry because I did not take you in last night,” he said. ”I had lost the key to the house door. Before I found it, you had gone on. If you pass our way again, you must stay with us.”
“Yes,” she said, “I will, if I ever come your way again.”
Then the rich man asked her to grant him three wishes, as she had done for his poor neighbour.
“It would do you no good,” said the fairy. “What is there for which you need to wish?”
“Oh,” cried the rich man, “I am sure I can find something I want.”
“Very well,” said the fairy. “Ride back home. The first three wishes that you make shall be granted.”

The wealthy man was so busy thinking about his wishes that he forgot to keep a firm grip on the reins. His horse started to prance and kick wildly.
“Settle down, Bess,“ he said.
But the horse only grew more unruly. In frustration, he shouted,
“Whoa, Bess! What's all this fuss about? I wish you'd just fall down and stay silent and deaf!“

As soon as the words left his mouth, the horse collapsed beneath him, becoming mute and deaf, unable to hear or respond to his commands. He had carelessly used his first wish, and it had come true.
“Well, at least I still have two wishes left,“ he thought to himself.

He did not like leaving the horse, saddle, and bridle on the road. So, he used all his strength to pull the horse, then put the bridle and saddle on his back, and started walking home on foot. The midday sun was blazing. Walking with such a burden was hot and exhausting. He thought about how cool his wife was, sitting comfortably at home. Yet, she was the one who had urged him to chase after the fairy.

“Ah! I wish this saddle were stuck to her back,“ he muttered, not thinking about what his words might do. As soon as he spoke, the saddle slipped off his back. Despite the heat, he hurried home as fast as he could. There he found his wife sitting with the saddle stuck to her back, crying because she could not get it off.

“Do not fret so much about a little thing,“ he said. “I will wish for us to have all the riches in the world, and the wish will come true if you let the saddle stay on.”
“You silly man,” she cried. “What use would all those riches be if I had this saddle on my back all my days? No, no! You wished it on, now you must wish it off.”
Very unwillingly, he had to wish that the saddle might come off her back. At once it fell to the ground.

The rich man had used all of his three wishes. They brought him only anger and trouble, hard words from his wife, and the loss of his horse. On the other hand, the three wishes of the kind and contented poor man freed him from worry to the end of his days.