For many years, a hardworking donkey had carried heavy sacks of corn to the mill for his master. Day after day, he travelled the familiar roads, faithfully doing his work without complaint. But time had taken its toll. His legs were no longer as strong as they once were, and carrying heavy loads had become increasingly difficult. As the donkey grew old, his master began to see him as an animal that was no longer useful. Little did he know that this donkey and three other animals would soon embark on an unforgettable adventure that would change their lives forever.
His master, who had once depended on him, began to wonder how he could avoid the expense of keeping an animal that was no longer useful to him.
The donkey soon sensed that his future was in danger. He had spent years serving his master, yet now that he was growing old, he was no longer wanted. Rather than wait to discover what would become of him, he made a decision.
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He would leave.
With his mind set on a new beginning, the donkey took to the road towards the city of Bremen.
“What shall I do when I get there?” he wondered as he walked. “I know! I shall become a town musician. I may be old, but surely I can still make a little music.”
The thought gave him fresh courage, and he continued on his journey.
Before long, he came across a dog lying beside the road. The poor animal was breathing heavily, as though he had run a very long distance.
“Why are you lying here gasping for breath?” the donkey asked.
The dog lifted his head and sighed.
“I am getting old,” he explained. “My strength is fading, and I can no longer hunt as I once did. My master has decided that I am no longer worth keeping and wants to kill me. I ran away to save myself, but now I have nowhere to go. I do not even know how I shall find food.”
The donkey listened with sympathy. He understood what it meant to be rejected simply because age had made work more difficult.
“I have an idea,” he said. “I am going to Bremen to become a town musician. Come with me. You can join the band. I shall play the lute, and you can beat the kettledrum.”
The dog considered the proposal. He had no better plan, and the thought of travelling with a companion was comforting.
“Very well,” he said. “I will come with you.”
So the donkey and the dog continued towards Bremen together, carrying with them the hope that life might still have something good in store.
The Cat Who Had Nowhere to Go
The two travellers had not gone very far when they noticed a cat sitting beside the path. Its face looked so gloomy that the donkey immediately wondered what could have happened.
“What has made you look so miserable, old fellow?” he asked.
The cat sighed and explained that age had caught up with him too. His teeth had worn down, and he could no longer catch mice as easily as he once had. These days, he preferred the comfort of sitting beside the warm fire to chasing prey around the house.
Unfortunately, his mistress had little patience for an ageing cat. Rather than allow him to spend his remaining days in comfort, she had decided to drown him.
“I escaped before she could do it,” the cat said. “But now I have no idea where to go. It seems there is no place for an old cat in this world.”
The donkey nodded thoughtfully.
“Then come with us to Bremen. You know how to make music at night, don’t you? You can join our band.”
The cat considered the offer. It was certainly better than returning to a house where his life was in danger.
“I will go with you,” he agreed.
And so the little group grew to three. The donkey, the dog and the cat continued down the road, each hoping that the journey would lead to something better than the life they had left behind.
The Cock Who Had One Last Morning to See
As the three animals travelled onwards, they came to a farmyard. There, perched proudly on a gate, was a cock crowing with all the strength left in his voice.
The sound was so loud that the donkey could not help commenting on it.
“You have quite a voice,” he said. “But what has happened to make you crow as though the whole world must hear you?”
The cock looked down at them.
“I am trying to enjoy the little time I have left,” he explained. “Today, I have been announcing fine weather. According to the belief I have heard, it is the day when Our Lady washes the Christ-child’s little shirts and hangs them out to dry. But there is no joy in this household for me. Guests are expected tomorrow, and the housewife has ordered the cook to prepare me for their meal. My head is to be cut off this evening.”
The cock raised his head and crowed again, determined to make use of every moment before his life was taken from him.
The donkey was troubled by the news.
“Come away with us,” he urged. “We are going to Bremen to become musicians. You have a strong voice, and if the four of us perform together, we might make a fine band. There must be something better waiting for you than being served in a soup.”
The cock was delighted by the invitation. He had no wish to become anyone’s dinner, and the thought of joining three companions offered him a chance to escape his fate.
He agreed, and the four animals set off together.
None of them knew exactly what awaited them in Bremen. Their plan was little more than a hopeful idea, but each had something to contribute. The donkey was strong, the dog could bark and bite, the cat had sharp claws, and the cock possessed a voice that could carry across a farmyard.
For the moment, that was enough.
A Strange Light in the Forest
The four travellers walked for the rest of the day, but Bremen was still too far away for them to reach before nightfall. Eventually, they entered a forest and decided to spend the night there.
They settled down according to their different natures. The donkey and the dog lay beneath a large tree, while the cat climbed into the branches. The cock flew to the highest branch he could find, where he would be safest from danger.
Before settling himself to sleep, the cock looked around the forest. In the distance, he noticed a tiny light flickering through the darkness.
He called to his companions.
“I can see a light over there! There must be a house nearby.”
The donkey lifted his head. Spending the night beneath a tree was hardly comfortable, especially when a warmer shelter might be close.
“Then we should go and see whether we can find somewhere better to rest,” he said.
The dog was equally interested. After a long day’s walk, he would welcome a meal, especially if it included meat and bones.
Together, the animals followed the distant light.
As they approached, the little glow grew brighter until they discovered that it came from a house filled with light. But this was no ordinary home. Inside sat a band of robbers, gathered around a table laden with food and drink.
The animals stopped to consider what they had found.
The donkey, being the tallest, moved towards the window and peered inside.
“What can you see?” the cock asked.
“An entire table covered with delicious food,” the donkey replied. “And the people inside are helping themselves to it.”
The cock’s eyes brightened.
“That sounds like exactly the kind of place we need!”
The donkey agreed. The animals were tired, hungry and far from their destination. Yet the robbers were unlikely to welcome four strange animals through the door, especially if they wanted to share their supper.
They needed another plan.
Four Animals, One Clever Plan
The companions gathered to discuss their problem. None of them could defeat the robbers by strength alone, but together they might be able to frighten them away.
After considering their options, they devised an unusual plan.
The donkey would stand on his hind legs and place his front feet on the window ledge. The dog would climb onto the donkey’s back. The cat would perch on top of the dog, and the cock would settle himself on the cat’s head.
One by one, the animals climbed into position until they formed a peculiar tower of fur, feathers and hooves.
They waited for their signal.
Then, all at once, they began their performance.
The donkey brayed as loudly as he could. The dog barked and howled. The cat let out a fierce, piercing meow, and the cock crowed at the top of his voice.
The combined noise was tremendous.
At the same moment, the four animals crashed through the window into the room. Glass shattered, their cries filled the house, and their strange shapes appeared in the light.
The robbers had never seen anything like it.
Convinced that some terrifying supernatural creature had invaded their hideout, they leapt away from the table and rushed out into the forest. In their panic, they abandoned the house and all the food they had been enjoying.
The animals had succeeded.
With the danger apparently gone, the four companions gathered around the table and ate their fill. There was bread, meat and plenty of food to satisfy their hunger after the long journey. They ate so heartily that one might have thought they were preparing for a month without another meal.
For the first time since leaving their former homes, they could rest without worrying about being hunted, drowned, killed or thrown away.
Their strange musical performance had brought them something more immediately useful than an audience’s applause: a safe place to sleep and enough food to satisfy them.
The Robber Who Returned After Midnight
When the meal was finished, the animals put out the light and found sleeping places around the house.
The donkey settled down on some straw in the yard. The dog lay behind the door, the cat curled up beside the warm ashes of the hearth, and the cock perched on a beam beneath the roof.
Exhausted by their journey, all four soon fell asleep.
Hours passed. The forest grew quiet, and the night deepened.
After midnight, the robbers who had fled into the woods began to wonder whether they had been too easily frightened. From a distance, their captain noticed that the light in the house had gone out. Everything appeared still.
Perhaps the terrifying intruders had disappeared.
“We should never have allowed ourselves to be frightened like that,” he declared.
He ordered one of his men to return to the house and investigate.
The robber approached cautiously. When he entered, he found the rooms quiet and dark. Seeing no obvious sign of danger, he made his way into the kitchen to light a candle.
There, beside the hearth, he noticed two bright points of light shining in the darkness.
They were the cat’s eyes.
Mistaking them for glowing embers, he moved closer and held a match towards them, hoping to light his candle.
The cat had no intention of allowing a stranger to disturb his rest. Startled by the approaching flame, he sprang at the man’s face, spitting and scratching him with his claws.
The robber cried out and fled towards the back door.
But the dog was lying there. Hearing the commotion, he sprang up and sank his teeth into the man’s leg.
The terrified robber stumbled onwards into the yard, hoping to escape through the darkness. As he hurried past the straw heap, the donkey delivered a powerful kick with his hind legs.
Above them all, the noise had awakened the cock. Alert and ready to greet the disturbance with his usual enthusiasm, he called out from his perch:
“Cock-a-doodle-doo!”
The robber needed no further encouragement to run.
He raced back through the forest until he reached his companions, breathless and shaking with fear.
The Robbers’ Terrifying Mistake
The captain demanded to know what had happened.
The returning robber struggled to explain.
“There is a terrible witch in the house!” he exclaimed. “She attacked me with her long claws, scratching and spitting at my face!”
He continued before anyone could question him.
“By the door, there is a man carrying a knife who stabbed me in the leg. In the yard, a black monster struck me with a wooden club. And up on the roof sits a judge who shouted at me to bring the rogue before him!”
The captain and the other robbers listened in alarm.
What the man described was nothing more than four ordinary animals defending their new home. The cat’s claws had become a witch’s attack, the dog’s bite had turned into a knife wound, the donkey’s kick had become a blow from a monstrous figure, and the cock’s crow had sounded like the command of a judge.
But the robber was convinced that he had barely escaped with his life.
His companions had no desire to face such frightening creatures. They decided that returning to the house would be far too dangerous.
And so the robbers stayed away.
Meanwhile, the donkey, the dog, the cat and the cock had found something better than the distant city they had set out to reach. The house offered shelter, warmth, food and freedom from the people who had once treated them as disposable.
They remained there, content with their new life, and never felt the need to continue their journey to Bremen.
And so the tale ends with a playful traditional flourish: whoever has just told the story still has a warm mouth.
The four animals had set out hoping to become musicians. Instead, their unexpected partnership had won them a home.
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Moral
Never assume that someone has nothing left to offer because they have grown old or lost their former abilities. Cooperation, courage and resourcefulness can create opportunities where none seemed to exist.
The story also reminds us that a successful new beginning does not always require reaching the destination we first imagined.
Knowledge Check
1. Why did the four animals leave their former homes? They left because their owners considered them too old or no longer useful and planned to get rid of them.
2. What did the animals originally intend to do in Bremen? They intended to become town musicians and earn a living by performing together.
3. How did they drive the robbers out of the house? They climbed on top of one another, made a tremendous noise and burst through the window, frightening the robbers into fleeing.
4. Why did the robbers refuse to return? One robber mistook the animals for terrifying supernatural figures after they attacked him, and his frightening account convinced the others to stay away.
5. Did the animals ever reach Bremen? No. They found a comfortable home in the robbers’ house and decided to remain there instead.
Source
Adapted from Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household Tales, translated by Margaret Hunt, 1884, “The Bremen Town-Musicians,” Tale 27 (KHM 27). Project Gutenberg, eBook no. 5314:
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