The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats

There was once an old goat who had seven little kids and loved them as a mother loves her children. One day she had to go into the forest for food. She called them all and said: “Dear children, I must be away; be on your guard against the wolf. If he comes in, he will eat you all—skin, hair, and all. The villain often disguises himself, but you will know him by his rough voice and black feet.” The kids said they would be careful, and the mother goat bleated and went on her way.

It was not long before someone knocked and called: “Open, children; your mother is here and has brought something for each of you.” But the little kids heard the rough voice and cried: “We will not open; you are not our mother—she has a soft, kind voice, and your voice is rough; you are the wolf!”

The wolf went to a shopkeeper and bought chalk; he ate it to soften his voice. Then he came back and knocked: “Open, children; your mother is here.” The kids heard the soft voice, but he put his black paws on the window-sill, and they cried: “We will not open; our mother has not black feet like you—you are the wolf!”

So the wolf ran to a baker and said his paws hurt; he asked to have them dusted with flour. The baker refused at first, saying it would bring him into trouble, but the wolf threatened him until he whitened the paws. Then the wolf went a third time to the house, knocked, and said: “Open to me, children; your dear mother has come home and brought each of you something.” The kids called: “Show us your paws first, that we may know if you are our mother.” He put his paws in at the window; when they saw they were white, they believed him and opened the door.

In rushed the wolf. The kids hid—under the table, in the bed, in the stove, in the kitchen, in the cupboard, under the wash-tub, and the youngest in the clock-case. The wolf found them all but the youngest and swallowed them. Then he stretched on the meadow under a tree and fell asleep.

The mother goat came home. The house door stood wide. Tables, chairs, and benches were thrown down; the wash-tub lay tipped; covers and pillows were tossed on the floor. She searched and called her children by name; no one answered until she came to the youngest in the clock. He told how the wolf had come and eaten the others. You may imagine how she wept.

At last she went out, and the youngest kid with her. When they reached the meadow, the wolf lay snoring under the tree, his belly high and moving. She looked and saw something kick inside. “Heavens,” she thought, “is it possible my children are still alive?” She sent the youngest for scissors, needle, and thread. She cut open the monster’s stomach; one kid after another leapt out, all still living—for in his greed he had swallowed them whole. They embraced their mother. Then she said: “Go fetch stones.” They stuffed the wolf’s belly with stones, and she sewed him up again so quickly that he noticed nothing and slept on.

When the wolf woke he wanted to drink. He went to the well; the stones inside made him clumsy. Softly he said: “What rattles, what rattles against my poor bones? I thought it was six kids, but it feels like stones.” When he leaned over the well, the heavy stones pulled him in, and he drowned. The kids and their mother danced around the well for joy.

Where this story comes from

“The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats” is a German tale from the Brothers Grimm and is not Indian. In Margaret Hunt’s 1884 translation it is number 5, Der Wolf und die sieben jungen Geißlein. The English here follows the Project Gutenberg edition built on Taylor and Edwardes.

The Grimms had it from the Main district. Their note finds the same idea in Pomerania, where a ghost swallows a child together with stones and falls down under their weight, and in short fable versions by Boner and Burkard Waldis. They also quote a French rhyme in which the wolf makes the miller whiten his paw with flour.

Read the original: Grimms’ Fairy Tales, tr. Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes (Project Gutenberg #2591, The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids)

Suggested for ages 9–12 with an adult available: includes children swallowed alive, the wolf’s belly being cut open, and his drowning.

The wolf learns from each refusal

The kids remember both warnings: first they reject the voice, then the paws. Each refusal tells the wolf what to change next. This makes the final deception more troubling than simple disobedience; the children are actively checking, while an attacker is deliberately falsifying their evidence. The youngest kid’s account later gives their mother the information she needs to find them.

Track the three visits

Draw three doors. Beside each, write the sign the kids check and the change the wolf makes. Then add a fourth scene showing how the youngest kid helps after hiding. Discuss trusted help as well as clever checks; responsibility for the attack remains with the wolf.

Talk about it

• How did the kids recognise the wolf the first two times?
• Why did the youngest kid’s hiding place matter so much?
• If a stranger knocked on your door and said they were someone you knew, how would you check?

Related stories

• Little Red Riding Hood — a Grimm wolf who swallows a grandmother and is filled with stones
• The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing — an Aesop wolf who disguises himself to fool the flock
• The Three Languages — a Grimm youth who understands animals and is rewarded for listening