The Lord's Animals and the Devil's (Grimm)
Division into chapters is editorial.
The creation of goats and the trouble with their tails
After creating all the animals in the world, The Lord God chose the wolf to serve as his faithful dog, but in his divine work, he had overlooked one creature - the goat.
The Lord God had created all animals, and had chosen out the wolf to be his dog, but he had forgotten the goat. Then the Devil made ready and began to create also
Seeing this opportunity, The Devil decided to fill the gap and began his own act of creation.
The Devil crafted goats with beautiful, fine long tails that swept behind them as they moved. However, his creation proved problematic from the start. When the goats went out to pasture, their magnificent tails constantly became entangled in hedges and thorny bushes. Each time this happened, The Devil had to personally go out and disentangle them, which required considerable effort and caused him great frustration. The repeated inconvenience of freeing his creatures from their predicament eventually drove him to fury.
The Lords wolves destroy the goats and the Devil demands payment
In his rage, The Devil took drastic action to solve the tail problem.
This enraged him at last, and he went and bit off the tail of every goat, as may be seen to this day by the stump. Then he let them go to pasture alone
With their tails removed, the goats could now graze freely without getting caught. However, this freedom led to new problems that would anger The Lord God. The goats began causing destruction throughout the land, gnawing at fruitful trees, damaging noble vines, and destroying other tender plants. Their destructive behavior distressed The Lord God greatly, as these were precious parts of his creation being ruined.
This distressed him, so that in his goodness and mercy he summoned his wolves, who soon tore in pieces the goats that went there
The wolves efficiently eliminated the destructive goats, but this solution created a new conflict. When The Devil discovered that his creatures had been destroyed, he immediately confronted The Lord God, demanding compensation for his losses. The Lord God questioned why The Devil had created things designed to cause harm. The Devil's response revealed his fundamental nature - he explained that since his thoughts naturally ran toward evil, everything he created would inevitably have a harmful nature, and therefore The Lord God owed him substantial damages for the destruction of his goats.
I was compelled to do it: inasmuch as my thoughts run on evil, what I create can have no other nature, and thou must pay me heavy damages
The Lord God agreed to pay the compensation, but set a specific condition for when the payment would be made.
I will pay thee as soon as the oak leaves fall; come then, thy money will then be ready counted out
The Devil accepted this arrangement, believing he would soon receive his payment when autumn arrived and the oak leaves naturally fell to the ground.
The Devils search for the eternal oak and his final revenge
When autumn came and the oak leaves had fallen, The Devil returned to collect his promised payment. However, The Lord God had a clever surprise waiting for him.
In the church of Constantinople stands a tall oak-tree which still has all its leaves
The Lord God informed The Devil that not all oak leaves had fallen, as there remained one specific oak tree that retained its foliage. Filled with rage and uttering curses, The Devil departed to find this exceptional tree.
With raging and curses, the Devil departed, and went to seek the oak, wandered in the wilderness for six months before he found it
His long search through the wilderness finally led him to the oak in Constantinople, but by the time he returned to collect his payment, spring had arrived and all the other oak trees had grown fresh green leaves again. The Devil realized he had been outwitted and would have to forfeit his compensation entirely. In his fury at being deceived, he took revenge on the remaining goats by removing their eyes and replacing them with his own demonic ones. This final act of vengeance explains why all goats have devil's eyes and their tails bitten off, and why The Devil enjoys taking their form when he appears in the world.