In a sunny little village, nestled among green hills, lived two men. And guess what? Both of them were named Claus! To tell them apart, people called the rich one, who owned four horses, Big Claus. The other, who owned only one horse, was called Little Claus.

Every Sunday, Little Claus would borrow Big Claus’s four horses. He’d line them up with his own and shout, "Giddy-up, my five fine horses!" as he plowed his field.
This made Big Claus very grumpy. "Stop saying those are your horses!" he’d grumble. "You only have one!"
But Little Claus just giggled and kept shouting about his "five fine horses" every Sunday.
One day, Big Claus got so cross that he took an axe and – oh dear! – he hit Little Claus’s only horse, and it fell down, quite still.

Little Claus was very sad. But then he had an idea. He carefully took the skin off his horse, dried it, put it in a bag, and set off to town to sell it.
Night came, and a big storm blew up. Little Claus found a farmhouse and knocked. "Could I please stay the night?" he asked.
The farmer’s wife opened the door. "Oh, my husband isn't home," she said, looking a bit nervous. "But come in, you can sleep by the fire."
She gave him some supper. But then, Little Claus saw her quickly hide a big roast in the oven, and some wine and cake in a chest. Just then, there was a knock. It was the farmer!
The farmer’s wife quickly hid the deacon – a man from the church who had been visiting – in another big chest.
"Who's that?" asked the farmer, seeing Little Claus.
"A traveler, caught in the storm," said his wife.
They all sat down to a simple meal. Little Claus squeezed his bag with the horse skin, and it made a funny 'Squeak-squawk!' sound.
"Shhh!" said Little Claus to his bag. "My wizard in the bag says there’s a delicious roast hidden in the oven!"
The farmer, curious, opened the oven. And there was the roast!
"Amazing!" said the farmer. "What else does your wizard say?"
Little Claus squeezed the bag again. 'Squeak-squawk!' "He says there's wine and cake in that chest over there!"
And sure enough, there they were!
"This is a wonderful wizard!" cried the farmer. "Does he know anything else?"
Little Claus squeezed the bag very hard. 'SQUEAK-SQUAWK!' "Oh," said Little Claus, "my wizard says there’s a little devil hiding in that other big chest, and he looks like a deacon!"
The farmer, now very excited, threw open the chest. Out popped the frightened deacon!
The farmer was so impressed with the "wizard" in the bag that he gave Little Claus a whole bushel of money for the horse skin.

Little Claus went home, very rich. When Big Claus saw him with so much money, he asked, "Where did you get all that?"
"Oh, I sold my horse's skin," said Little Claus, jingling his money. "It fetched a very good price!"
Big Claus, thinking he could get even richer, quickly went and – oh dear, again! – he hit all four of his horses, took their skins, and hurried to market.
"Horse skins for sale! Magic horse skins!" he shouted.
But people just laughed or looked angry. "Are you mad?" they said. "What would we do with those?" He got no money at all.

Big Claus was furious! He grabbed Little Claus, stuffed him into a big sack, and said, "I’m going to throw you in the river for tricking me!"
On the way to the river, Big Claus felt tired and thirsty. He left the sack by the church and went into an inn for a drink.
While Little Claus was wiggling in the sack, an old cattle drover came by with a big herd of cows.
"Oh, woe is me!" sighed Little Claus from inside the sack. "So young, and I must go to heaven!"
"Heaven?" said the old man. "I'm old, I'd like to go to heaven! What do I have to do?"
"Well," said Little Claus, "if you untie this sack and get in, you can go to heaven instead of me, and I'll look after your cattle."
The old man happily untied the sack, climbed in, and Little Claus tied it up again. Then Little Claus took all the cattle and walked away.
Soon, Big Claus came out of the inn, picked up the sack, and threw it into the river with a big SPLASH! "There," he said, "that's the end of Little Claus!"

A little later, Big Claus was walking home when he saw Little Claus with a huge herd of beautiful cattle!
"Little Claus!" he gasped. "Weren't you in the sack? How did you get all these cows?"
"Oh, when you threw me in the river," said Little Claus, smiling, "I sank to the bottom, and it was full of the most wonderful cattle! These are just a few I brought up. There are many more down there."
"Really?" cried Big Claus, his eyes wide with greed. "Then throw me in! I want cattle too! But put a big stone in the sack with me so I sink quickly."
So Little Claus found a big stone, helped Big Claus put it in a sack with himself, and then – splash! – he pushed Big Claus into the river. Big Claus sank straight to the bottom and never came up again.

And so, Little Claus, who was clever and a bit cheeky, got all of Big Claus’s money and his farm, and lived happily with all his new cattle.

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