The Queen Bee
Two sons of kings ventured out to seek excitement and got involved in a reckless and unruly lifestyle, which resulted in them never returning home. Simpleton, the youngest of the brothers, went on a quest to find his siblings, however, upon eventually locating them, they ridiculed him for believing that his simplicity could help him navigate the world better than them, who were supposedly more intelligent but still unable to succeed.
The three of them journeyed together and arrived at an ant-hill. The older siblings desired to demolish the ant-hill and watch the tiny ants scurry in fear while carrying their eggs, but Simpleton objected and urged them to leave the creatures unharmed, refusing to let them disturb the ants.
Afterwards, they continued on their journey and arrived at a lake where a multitude of ducks were swimming. The two older brothers aimed to capture a pair of ducks and cook them, but Simpleton intervened and insisted on leaving the animals unharmed, refusing to let his brothers kill them.
Finally, they reached a beehive that was overflowing with so much honey that it dripped out of the tree trunk it was in. The older brothers intended to start a fire under the tree to suffocate the bees and steal the honey, but once again, Simpleton prevented them from doing so and insisted on leaving the bees unharmed, refusing to let his brothers burn them.
Eventually, the three brothers reached a castle where they found stone horses in the stables and no signs of any human presence, they explored all the halls until they reached a door at the very end that had three locks. However, in the center of the door, there was a small window through which they could peer into the room. They glimpsed a tiny, elderly man sitting at a table inside. They attempted to get the attention of the little gray man by calling him once and then twice, but he did not respond, finally, on the third call, he arose, unlocked the door, and emerged from the room. He did not speak, but led them to a beautifully set table where they ate and drank before he showed each of them to a bedroom.
The following morning, the little gray man gestured for the eldest brother to follow him and led him to a stone table, on it were engraved three tasks that, once accomplished, would release the castle from its enchantment.
The first task was to search the forest for the princess's pearls, which were concealed beneath the moss, there were one thousand pearls, and they all needed to be collected, if, by sunset, even a single pearl was missing, the person who searched for them would be transformed into stone. The eldest brother went to the forest and spent the entire day searching for the pearls, however, he was only able to find one hundred of them by the end of the day, as the writing on the table had warned, he was transformed into stone as punishment for not completing the task.The following day, the second brother attempted to complete the task, but fared no better than the eldest, he only managed to find two hundred pearls, and as a result, he was transformed into stone just like his older brother. Finally, it was Simpleton's turn to search for the pearls hidden in the moss. However, he found it very difficult and made slow progress. He became so frustrated that he sat down on a stone and began to weep. As Simpleton was sitting there crying, the king of the ants that he had once saved came with five thousand ants, together, they quickly gathered all the remaining pearls and placed them in a neat heap.
The second challenge was to retrieve the key to the princess's bedroom from the lake.
When Simpleton arrived at the lake, the ducks that he had saved earlier swam up to him, dived into the water, and retrieved the key, bringing it back to him.
The third and final task was the most challenging of all: to identify the youngest and most beloved daughter of the king, who was sleeping amongst her two sisters. The three sleeping daughters of the king looked exactly alike, and the only way to distinguish them was by what they had eaten before falling asleep, the eldest had eaten a bit of sugar, the second had eaten a little syrup, and the youngest had eaten a spoonful of honey. After tasting the lips of all three sisters, the queen bee, who was saved from the fire by Simpleton, settled on the mouth of the youngest sister who had eaten honey, as a result, the prince was able to identify the correct princess.
Then the spell was broken, everything woke up from the sleep, and those who had been transformed into stone regained their original shapes. Simpleton wedded the youngest and most charming princess, and after the king's demise, he became the ruler and his two brothers were married to the other two sisters.
