The Miser in the Bush

For three years a hard-working farmhand served a farmer and never received a wage. Finally he asked to be paid what he had earned. The farmer was greedy and knew the man was trustful, so he counted out three pennies—one for each year—and handed them over. The servant thought the sum enormous. Why stay on poor food and hard labour? With that purse he could roam and enjoy himself. He pocketed the coins and left, wandering hills and valleys.

Singing as he walked, he met a little dwarf who wondered why he looked so cheerful. “Why should I not be merry?” said the man. “I am sound in health and have a full purse; three years’ pay is safe in my pocket.” “How much?” asked the dwarf. “Three pennies altogether.” The dwarf begged for them, saying he was destitute. Pity moved the servant to give every coin away. In thanks the dwarf offered three wishes—one per penny. The man chose freely: a bow that never missed; a fiddle that forced anyone who heard it to dance; and the power that others must grant whatever he requested. Bow and fiddle were given, and the dwarf departed.

Far merrier now, the servant soon met a mean old skinflint. A thrush sang on the highest twig of a nearby tree. The skinflint longed aloud for such a pretty bird and said he would pay dearly for it. The servant offered to fetch it down, drew his bow, and the thrush dropped into the bushes. The skinflint crawled in after it. The moment he was among the thorns, the servant struck up his fiddle. The miser leaped and spun; thorns shredded his clothes and scored his skin until he bled. He pleaded for the music to stop. “You have fleeced many a poor soul,” the fiddler answered; “this is only your due,” and he played another air. Offers of money rose as the dance grew wilder, until the miser emptied a purse of a hundred florins won by cheating someone else. That price the servant accepted. He took the gold, packed away the fiddle, and went on, content.

Torn and half bare, the miser crawled free and plotted revenge. He told a judge that a rogue with a bow on his back and a fiddle at his neck had robbed and beaten him. Officers hunted the accused down and hauled him to court.

The miser swore he had been robbed. The servant answered that the gold was payment for a tune. The judge found that story unlikely and ordered him straight to the gallows.

On the scaffold steps the condemned man asked one last favour. “Anything but your life,” said the judge. He did not ask for life—only leave to play his fiddle once more. The miser shrieked that no one must listen, yet the judge allowed it “just this once.” In fact the third wish made refusal impossible.

“Bind me fast!” the miser begged. Too late: the first notes set judge, clerks, and jailer capering; no one could hold the prisoner. The second note freed him from the hangman, who danced as well. Soon the whole court and the crowd that had come to watch were jigging without pause. What began as a joke turned desperate when the music would not end. They begged him to stop. He played on until the judge spared his life and promised the hundred florins back.

Then the servant demanded, before everyone, where the gold had come from—or he would play for the miser’s private torment alone. “I stole it,” the miser confessed aloud, “and you earned it fairly.” Only then did the fiddler cease, and left the miser to face the gallows in his place.

Where this story comes from

The English version followed here, the Project Gutenberg text based on Taylor and Edwardes, calls this German tale “The Miser in the Bush”. In the Grimms’ own collection it is number 110, titled in Margaret Hunt’s 1884 translation “The Jew among Thorns” (Der Jude im Dorn). The original villain was a hostile stereotype of a Jewish man, that should be recognized as antisemitic; the English text makes him simply a miser, as this page does. It is not an Indian tale.

The change of title and character label removes an explicit religious stereotype from this telling, but it does not remove the plot’s cruelty. A coerced payment is presented as a fair fee, and a confession extracted through threatened pain leads to an execution. Those features need critical reading too.

Read the original: Grimms’ Fairy Tales, tr. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes (Project Gutenberg #2591, The Miser in the Bush)

Best for older readers with an adult — includes antisemitic source history, torture in thorns, coercion and execution. This retelling uses the later English miser character but retains the troubling plot.

Reading the story closely

The servant begins as a victim of underpayment and responds generously to the little man’s need. Once he has magic, however, he can deny others the ability to refuse. The fiddle and the third wish make control, rather than persuasion or evidence, decide the outcome.

Separate what the miser freely agrees to from what he says while being hurt or threatened. Is money surrendered to stop pain a payment for music? Does a forced confession establish truth? Those questions expose the gap between the narrator’s approval and the conduct the story actually describes.

Talk about it

• Why does the servant give his three pennies to the dwarf?
• What were the three wishes, and which one saves him at the gallows?
• The servant makes the miser dance until he bleeds. Was that fair punishment, or too much? Why?

Related stories

• The Blue Light — a badly paid Grimm soldier whose magic gift helps him turn the tables
• The Golden Goose — a kind Grimm hero who shares with a little grey man and is rewarded
• The Willow-Wren and the Bear — a small Grimm creature who wins against much bigger opponents