here was once a miller, who had three sons, a donkey and a tomcat; the sons had to work the mill, the donkey to fetch corn and deliver flour and the cat to catch mice. When the miller died, the eldest son inherited the mill, the second the donkey and the youngest the cat. The youngest son was very disappointed, for he did not know what he could do with the cat. So the cat said: "Listen, have a pair of long boots made for me and you will soon see what I can do."

When the boots had been made, the cat went out with a big sack to catch partridges. That country was ruled by a king who loved to eat partridges. When the cat had caught a few he brought them straight to the king and said they were a present from his master, the Count. The king was delighted and gave the cat as much money as his sack would hold. The cat brought the full sack back to his astonished master.

The cat repeated this trick many times and became a welcome guest at court. One day, when the king was preparing to go out with his daughter, the cat ran home and told his master to go out with him to the lake and have a swim. When he was swimming stark naked in the lake, the cat hid his clothes which were lying on the bank. Straight away, he ran to the road where the king was driving with his daughter and called out: "My master the Count had his clothes stolen while he was swimming in the lake."

Thereupon the king had some beautiful clothes brought for the supposed Count. The cat hurried ahead and ordered the people working beside the road to tell the king, if he asked who owned all that land, that it belonged to the count, although in fact it was the property of a sorcerer.

The cat ran on until he came to the sorcerer's castle. A well-known power of the sorcerer was the ability to change himself into any kind of animal. The cat persuaded him to change himself into a mouse, which he immediately caught and ate. When the king's carriage, in which his master was also driving, came to the castle, the cat stood at the top of the ateps and invited the king in, saying the castle was his master's.

The king said to the miller's son: "You must be a rich man" and gave him his daughter in marriage. When the old king died, the miller's son became king and the cat was his minister.