Clever Hans

Morning after morning Hans’s mother asked where he meant to go. “Gretel’s house,” he said. “Mind your manners while you are there.” “I will,” he promised cheerfully, and set out down the lane. At the door Gretel greeted him and asked what gift he brought. “None,” said Hans. “I hoped you might give me something.” She handed him a slender needle. On the dusty road home he pushed it deep into a load of hay on a passing cart and trudged behind, pleased with his own cleverness. Mother asked for the needle; he pointed at the cart. She scolded: a sleeve would have been safer. He vowed to manage better.

Next day Gretel offered a knife. This time he did as he had been told and slid it into his sleeve, then walked home with his arm held stiffly. Now his mother said a knife belonged in a pocket. He vowed to manage better.

Later she gave a young goat. Thinking of pockets, he bound its legs and forced it into his coat. It smothered before he reached the yard. Mother said a rope around the neck and a walk home would have kept it alive. He vowed to manage better.

A thick piece of bacon came next as her gift. He knotted it to a cord and hauled it proudly through the dust. Village dogs tore it to shreds before the gate; he arrived with only a bare string swinging in his hand. Mother said the bacon belonged on his head. He vowed to manage better.

Then a calf. He balanced it on his skull; hooves battered his face. Mother said lead it to the stall like any sensible farmer. He vowed to manage better.

At last Gretel herself offered to walk home with him. Hans, sure he finally understood livestock advice, knotted a rope around her waist, marched her to the stable rack, fastened her there among the stalls, and tossed down fresh grass as if she were a cow waiting for milking. Mother heard where he had left her and cried that kind looks, not a tether, were what a sweetheart needed. He vowed to manage better still.

Still trying to “cast friendly eyes” in the most literal way he could invent, he went into the stable, cut the eyes from the calves and sheep, and flung them into Gretel’s face. Gretel flew into a rage, tore herself loose and ran away, and she was Hans’s bride no longer.

Where this tale comes from

“Clever Hans” is number 32 in Margaret Hunt’s translation of the Grimms (“Der gescheite Hans”). This retelling adapts the English text in Project Gutenberg’s Grimms’ Fairy Tales (#2591), based on the translations of Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes.

The original is told nearly all in short, repeated dialogue between Hans, Gretel and his mother. It is a “numbskull” story: each piece of advice fits the last gift but not the next one. The ending retains animal mutilation and an assault on Gretel.

Read the original: Grimms’ Fairy Tales (Project Gutenberg #2591)

Best for older readers with an adult — includes an animal’s death, animal mutilation, and a woman tied up and assaulted; its comic form does not make these actions harmless.

Reading the story closely

Most episodes repeat one error: Hans uses a solution for yesterday’s object without asking whether today’s needs are different. The ending changes the pattern. Now he treats a figurative instruction—“cast friendly eyes”—as a literal command. The repeated promise to improve becomes more disturbing as the consequences grow worse.

Make a two-column list of gifts and the old advice Hans applies to each. Stop before Gretel’s arrival and identify what changes when a person replaces an object. Gretel’s consent and safety matter; she is not a gift to store. Her departure sets a boundary that Hans’s repeated promises cannot undo.

Talk about it

• Why did his mother’s advice never work for the next gift?
• What could Hans have done differently to understand what his mother meant?
• His mother meant “look kindly at her.” Why do you think Hans got it so wrong, and what does the story say about following advice without thinking?

Related stories

• Clever Elsie — another Grimm tale where a “clever” person is anything but
• Hans in Luck — another Hans who gets every trade and bargain backwards
• The Turnip — a Grimm story of brothers whose choices bring very different results