Fairy Tale Story - The Thief and his Master

   This fairy tale story is collected from the Brothers Grimm. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are known as the Brothers Grimm. This fairy tale is from the book named, Household Tale.  Translated by- Margaret Hunt, published from- London: George Bell, 1884

The Thief and his Master

    The Thief and his Master

- A fairy tale by - The Brothers Grimm

   Hans wished to put his son to learn a trade, so he went into the church and prayed to our Lord God to know which would be most advantageous for him. Then the priest 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. So he goes with his son to seek a man who is familiar with thieving.

   They walk a long time and come into a great forest, where stands a little house and an old woman was there. Hans says, "Do you know of a man who is acquainted with thieving?"

   "You can learn that here quite well," says the woman, "my son is a master of it."

   So Hans speaks with the son, and asks if he knows thieving really well? The master-thief says, "I will teach him well. 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 (currency)."

The Brothers Grimm

The Grimm Brothers

   The Grimm Brothers, famous Fairy Tales and Folk story writers 

   Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm known as The Grimm Brothers. They were born in Ganau, Germany. Jacob Grimm was the second son of their parents, was born on 4th January, 1785 and Wilhelm Grimm was the third son, was born on 24th of February, 1786. From their early youth, the brothers were very close friends until their death. They were always complementing each other.

   The Brothers Grimm were a large family of nine children, eight boys and one girl. Their father, Philipp Wilhelm Grimm was a lawyer. After his death, the Grimms were able to finish their education only thanks to the kindness of their aunt and they set out to Kassel to attend law school and to follow in their father’s footsteps. 

   The Brothers Grimm showed their luminous abilities while they were still young. After a graduation at the Kassel School, the Grimms were continued their education at Marburg University with the firm intention to become lawyers. They listened to lectures at the Law School and studied legal science, but their natural tendencies led them in a fully different direction to the study of German and foreign literature.

   The Brothers Grimm had been collecting fairy tales from the people of Kassel since the early 1800’s. Generally, they had collected this from a favorite local storyteller named Marie Muller. After their graduation, the Grimms  decided to inspect the manuscripts with ancient German literature and continued their research in this area until the end of their life.

   Between (1805–1809), Jacob Grimm was a librarian to Jerome Bonaparte in Vilhelmsheg. After the war with France, Jacob Grimm received a task from the Elector of Kassel - to go to Paris and return to Kassel Library manuscripts which were stolen from the French.

   The Grimm Brothers published their first volume of eighty-six stories and tales in 1812. In 1814 the second volume contained seventy stories. The stories got a huge success and the brothers were recognized for their work in 1819 with honorary doctorates from Marburg University.