The Story of the Cunning Little Tailor

The story of the Cunning Little Tailor revolves around a vagabond tailor who lives with two of his comrades from the same profession. The former’s companions are experienced in their craft and often ridicule him for his vagrant nature. It so happens that the three of them hear about a princess’s marriage prospect. The wooers might belong to any section of the population. Each of the wooers would be required to solve a riddle the princess assigned them. Every wooer who reached their gates was humiliated and sent back for failing to solve the princess’s riddle.

The Cunning Tailor and the Bear

The Cunning Little Tailor 

Once there was a princess who always placed riddles to her wooer. If they could not answer they were sent away. The three tailors heard about this and wanted to take up the challenge. The two older tailors seemed confident about the challenge. They believed they could quickly solve the riddles assigned by the princess and that the little tailor stood no chance in front of them as rivals. However, the little tailor was determined that he would emerge victorious.

As decided, the three of them appeared before the princess. It was time for her to present the riddle. And so she did. She told the tailors that she had two kinds of hair on her head and wanted them to tell what colour they were.

The first tailor answered that the two colours of the hair on the princess’s head were black and white. The princess declared that the answer given by the first tailor was wrong, which is why the second got his chance to answer the riddle. The second tailor concluded since the hair was not black and white, it must be brown and red. The princess declared the answer wrong too. Thus, the little tailor got his chance to answer the question. He replied that the princess had golden and silver hair on her head. And those were the two colours. The answer was correct, but the princess hesitated before declaring the right answer.

To save herself from marrying the tailor, she demanded that the tailor be kept with the bear for the night. If he survived till morning, she would marry him. The brave tailor agreed without hesitating. He was taken to the bear once it was evening.

Before the bear could attack him with his deadly paws, he fished for nuts from his pockets and sat to eat them in front of the bear. The bear, looking at the tailor eating nuts, asked for some too. The tailor fished inside his pocket and gave the bear a few pebbles. When he failed to crack the pebbles, the tailor offered help. He took the pebbles from the bear and replaced them swiftly with nuts. The tailor cracked the nut and mocked the bear for being huge but powerless.

Once that was over, the tailor picked a violin and began playing it. The bear was amused and felt like dancing. He requested the tailor to teach him how to play the violin. The tailor told him his nails were too big and sharp to play the violin. Therefore, they must cut his nails. The bear agreed, and the tailor brought a vise to clamp his hands before he could cut them. He tightened the clamp to its limit. The bear groaned, and the tailor excused himself, saying that he needed to find scissors before he could cut his nails. After that, he left and went to sleep.

The next morning, when the princess saw the tailor, she was disappointed. However, she could not go back to her words. They set out for the church to get married. Meanwhile, out of envy, the other two tailors unclamped the bear’s hand from the vise, and the bear followed the tailor’s passage. The tailor, without hesitating, stood up in the car and threatened the bear to return, or else he would again clamp his hand in the vise. The bear ran away in fright, and the cunning little tailor got happily married to the princess.

Moral of the Story

The moral of the above-mentioned story is: “Intelligence is the key to get rid of any problem.”

Summary

The cunning little tailor fairy tale by brothers grimm narrates the story of a cunning tailor who not only answers the riddle placed before him by the arrogant princess, he overcomes every obstacle that comes after he wins the challenge. The cunning little tailor's summary is a perfect example of how to stay confident in adverse situations. It helps kids to understand that we are the ones who limit us. So, if people start to have faith in themselves, they can overcome their hurdles and achieve anything in life.