The Thief and His Master (Grimm)
Division into chapters is editorial.
Hans seeks a master thief to train his son
Hans wanted to apprentice his son to learn a trade, so he went to church to pray for divine guidance about which profession would be most beneficial. While he prayed, the clerk hid behind the altar and responded to his prayer by saying the word 'thieving' twice.
Then the clerk got behind the altar, and said, 'Thieving, thieving.' On this Hans goes back to his son, and tells him he is to learn thieving, and that the Lord God had said so.
Hans and his son traveled for a long time through a great forest until they found a small house where an old woman lived.
When Hans asked if she knew someone skilled in thieving, she replied that her son was a master of the craft. Hans spoke with her son, who agreed to teach the boy.
The year of training and the fathers test
Come back when a year is over, and then if you recognize your son, I will take no payment at all for teaching him; but if you don't know him, you must give me two hundred thalers.
The father returned home while his son learned both witchcraft and thieving thoroughly. When the year ended, Hans became anxious about how he would recognize his transformed son. As he worried about this problem, he encountered a little dwarf who asked what troubled him so deeply.
Hans explained his predicament about the two hundred thalers he would owe if he failed to recognize his son. The dwarf advised him to bring a basket of bread and stand beneath the chimney, where he would see a basket with a little bird peeping out - that would be his son. Hans followed these instructions exactly.
There on the crossbeam is a basket, out of which a little bird is peeping, and that is your son... '*Hollo*, my son, art thou here?' says the father, and the son is delighted to see his father.
The master-thief was amazed that Hans had recognized his transformed son, exclaiming that only the devil could have prompted such knowledge. The youth eagerly asked his father to leave, and they set out for home together.
The greyhound transformation and escape
On their journey home, a carriage approached them. The son told his father he would transform himself into a large greyhound so they could earn money. When a gentleman in the carriage offered to buy the beautiful dog for thirty thalers, the father agreed to sell it.
The gentleman took the greyhound into his carriage, but after they had driven a short distance, the dog sprang out through the window and returned to his father, no longer in greyhound form. Father and son went home together, having successfully earned money through the magical deception.
The horse transformation and the forgotten bridle
The next day there was a fair in the neighboring town. The youth proposed transforming into a beautiful horse that his father could sell, but warned that the bridle must be removed after the sale or he could not become human again. At the fair, the master-thief appeared and bought the horse for one hundred thalers.
However, the father forgot the crucial instruction and did not remove the bridle. The master-thief took the horse home and put it in his stable. When a maid crossed the threshold, the horse desperately pleaded with her to remove the bridle.
Startled that the horse could speak, the maid removed the bridle. Immediately the horse became a sparrow and flew out the door. The master-thief also transformed into a sparrow and pursued him, beginning a magical chase.
The magical duel and the students victory
The two sparrows came together and cast lots to determine the outcome of their contest, but the master lost and transformed into a fish by diving into water. The youth also became a fish, and they cast lots again underwater, with the master losing once more.
So the master changes himself into a cock, and the youth becomes a fox, and bites the master's head off, and he died and has remained dead to this day.