The Old Woman and Her Pig

An old woman was sweeping her house when she discovered a little crooked silver coin. What should she do with it? After considering the question, she decided to take it to the market and buy herself a small pig.

On the way home, she and the pig came to a stile, a set of steps built into a fence. The pig refused to climb over. The woman went a little farther and encountered a dog, to which she addressed her first request: it should bite the pig. The pig would not cross the stile, she explained, and consequently she would not get home that night. The dog, however, would not oblige.

A stick was her next possible helper. She instructed it to beat the dog, because the dog would not bite the pig, the pig would not cross the stile, and she would not reach home. The stick was no more cooperative than the dog.

The woman continued her search. She asked a fire to burn the stick, then some water to put out the fire, then an ox to drink the water. To each she explained the growing chain of refusals and its original consequence: the pig remained on the wrong side of the fence, preventing her from getting home. None would do what she asked.

Next came a butcher. She asked him to kill the ox, but he refused. She asked a rope to hang the butcher, but it would not. She asked a rat to bite through the rope, but the rat was unwilling as well. With every new refusal, the list of things that had to happen grew longer.

Finally, the woman came to a cat. Would it kill the rat? The rat would not bite through the rope, she explained; the rope would not hang the butcher; the butcher would not kill the ox; the ox would not drink the water. The water, the fire, the stick and the dog were equally unhelpful. At the beginning of it all stood the pig, still refusing to cross the stile.

The cat introduced a change to this pattern. Instead of simply refusing, it offered to kill the rat in exchange for a dish of milk. The woman should fetch it from the nearby cow.

When she approached the cow, she met another condition. If she brought a handful of hay from the stack nearby, the cow would give her milk. The woman fetched the hay and brought it to the cow.

After eating the hay, the cow supplied the promised milk. The woman carried it in a dish to the cat, which drank it and immediately began to attack the rat. That set everything else in motion.

The rat began biting through the rope; the rope began hanging the butcher; the butcher began killing the ox. The ox began drinking the water, the water began putting out the fire, and the fire began burning the stick. In turn, the stick began beating the dog, and the dog began biting the pig.

At this, the frightened little pig jumped over the stile. The chain of requests had finally reached the animal that started it all, and the old woman managed to get home that night.