A young shoemaker left his village. Along the way, he found some ants, who were very sad because a bear had destroyed their anthill. The shoemaker helped them rebuild it, and the ants offered to return the favor.

The shoemaker followed his way and found some bees with the same problem as the ants. The young man also helped them, and the bees promised to help him in the future.

Further along, the shoemaker learned that the king’s daughter was in thecastle of a witch. The young man decided to rescue her. But the witch locked him up in a stinking dunge on with a sack of sand mixed with poppy seeds and told him that if he wasn’t able to separate the two, she would cut off his head at dawn.
The young man thought about his death. But his friends the ants came and helped him pass the test. The witch was astounded. Then she took him to a room where there were thirteen maidens with their faces covered: the shoemaker had to discover which one was the princess.

The young man became discouraged but he saw a bee that landed on... the sweetest one, the true princess. When the shoemaker uncovered her face, the witch was changd into a crow. The young people fell in love and lived surrounded by animals and poppies.