Once upon a time, there was a princess who was extremely proud. Whenever a suitor came, she would give him a riddle to solve, and if he could not guess it, he was sent away with contempt. She also declared that whoever solved her riddle would marry her, no matter who he was. Eventually, three tailors decided to try their luck. The two eldest were confident, having completed many skillful tasks before, and believed they would succeed in this challenge as well. The third was a little, seemingly useless wanderer who barely knew his trade but hoped for a stroke of luck. The other two advised him:

—“Just stay at home; thou canst not do much with thy little bit of understanding.”

However, the little tailor was not discouraged.

—“I have set my head to work about this for once, and I will manage well enough,” he declared, setting off as if the whole world belonged to him.

The three tailors announced themselves to the princess, claiming they were the right ones to solve her riddle, as their understandings were so fine they could be threaded in a needle. The princess posed her challenge:

—“I have two kinds of hair on my head, of what color is it?”

The first tailor confidently guessed:

—“If that be all, it must be black and white, like the cloth which is called pepper and salt.”

—“Wrongly guessed; let the second answer,” said the princess.

The second tailor tried his luck:

—“If it be not black and white, then it is brown and red, like my father’s company coat.”

—“Wrongly guessed,” said the princess, “let the third give the answer, for I see very well he knows it for certain.”

The little tailor stepped forward boldly:

—“The princess has a silver and a golden hair on her head, and those are the two different colors.”

The princess turned pale, nearly fainting with terror, for the little tailor had guessed her riddle, something she believed no man on earth could do. Regaining her composure, she said:

—“Thou hast not won me yet by that; there is still something else that thou must do. Below, in the stable, is a bear with which thou shalt pass the night, and if thou art still alive in the morning, thou shalt marry me.”

The princess expected to rid herself of the tailor, as the bear had never left anyone alive who had fallen into its clutches. But the little tailor was delighted.

—“Boldly ventured is half won,” he said.

That evening, the little tailor was taken to the bear. As the bear approached to greet him with its paws, the tailor calmly said:

—“Softly, softly, I will soon make thee quiet.”

He took some nuts from his pocket, cracked them, and ate the kernels. The bear, curious, desired some nuts too. The tailor handed him a handful, but they were pebbles. The bear tried to crack them but failed.

—“Eh! What a stupid blockhead I am! I cannot even crack a nut!” thought the bear, asking the tailor:

—“Here, crack me the nuts.”

—“There, see what a stupid fellow thou art!” said the little tailor. “To have such a great mouth, and not be able to crack a small nut!”

The tailor cleverly replaced the pebble with a nut and cracked it easily. The bear, determined to succeed, tried again with another pebble but failed.

Afterward, the tailor took out a violin and played a tune. The bear, enchanted by the music, began to dance. Enjoying it, the bear said:

—“Hark you, is the fiddle heavy?”

—“Light enough for a child. Look, with the left hand I lay my fingers on it, and with the right I stroke it with the bow, and then it goes merrily, hop sa sa vivallalera!”

—“Fiddling is a thing I should like to understand too, that I might dance whenever I had a fancy. What dost thou think of that? Wilt thou give me lessons?”

—“With all my heart,” said the tailor, “if thou hast a talent for it. But just let me see thy claws, they are terribly long, I must cut thy nails a little.”

A vise was brought, and the bear placed his claws in it. The little tailor screwed it tight.

—“Now wait until I come with the scissors,” he said, letting the bear growl as he liked, while he lay down in a corner on a bundle of straw and fell asleep.

The princess, hearing the bear growling fiercely during the night, assumed it was celebrating the tailor's demise. In the morning, she arose carefree, but upon peeking into the stable, she found the tailor standing gaily before her, as healthy as a fish in water. Unable to retract her promise, the king ordered a carriage to take them to church for the wedding.

As they rode, the two envious tailors released the bear. The bear, furious, chased after the carriage. The princess, terrified, cried:

—“Ah, the bear is behind us and wants to get thee!”

The quick-thinking tailor stood on his head, stuck his legs out of the window, and shouted:

—“Dost thou see the vise? If thou dost not be off, thou shalt be put into it again.”

Seeing this, the bear turned around and ran away. The tailor drove quietly to the church, and the princess was married to him immediately. They lived happily ever after, as joyful as a woodlark.