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 certain man had a donkey, which had carried the corn-sacks to the mill for many a long year; but his strength was going, and he was growing more and more unfit for work. Then his master began to consider how he might best get rid of the donkey. Seeing that no good wind was blowing, the donkey ran away and set out on the road to Bremen. "There," he thought, "I can surely be a town-musician." When he had walked some distance, he found a hound lying on the road, gasping like one who had run till he was tired. "Why are you gasping, you big fellow?" asked the donkey.
"Ah," replied the hound, "as I am old, and daily grow weaker, and no longer can hunt, my master wanted to put me to sleep. So I ran away; but now, how am I to earn my bread?"
"I tell you what," said the donkey, "I am going to Bremen, and shall be town-musician there; go with me and engage yourself also as a musician. I will play the lute, and you shall beat the kettledrum."
The hound agreed, and on they went.
Before long they came to a cat, sitting on the path, with a face like three rainy days! "Now then, old kitty, what is wrong you?" asked the donkey.
"Who can be merry when his neck is in danger?" answered the cat. "Because I am now getting old, and my teeth are worn to stumps, and I prefer to sit by the fire and sleep, rather than hunt about after mice, my mistress wanted to drown me, so I ran away. Where am I to go?"
"Go with us to Bremen. You understand night-music, so you can be a town-musician."
The cat thought well of it, and went with them. Then the three runaways came to a farmyard, where the rooster was sitting on the gate, crowing with all his might. "Your crow goes through one," said the donkey. "What is the matter?"
"I have been foretelling fine weather, because it is the day on which Our Lady washes her child's little shirts, and wants to dry them," said the rooster. "But guests are coming for Sunday, so the housewife has no pity, and has told the cook that she intends to eat me in the soup tomorrow. This evening I am to have my head cut off. Now I am crowing at full pitch while I can."
"Ah," said the donkey, "you had better come away with us. We are going to Bremen; you can find something better than being rooster soup there. You have a good voice, and if we make music together it must have some quality!"
The rooster agreed to this plan, and all four went on together. They could not, however, reach the city of Bremen in one day, and in the evening they came to a forest where they meant to pass the night. The donkey and the hound laid themselves down under a large tree. The cat and the rooster settled themselves in the branches. But the rooster flew right to the top, where he was most safe. Before he went to sleep he looked round on all four sides, and thought he saw in the distance a little spark burning. So he called out to his companions that there must be a house not far off, for he saw a light. The donkey said, "If so, we had better get up and go on, for the shelter here is bad." The hound thought too that a few bones with some meat on would do him good!
So they made their way to the place where the light was, and soon saw it shine brighter and grow larger, until they came to a well-lighted robber's house. The donkey, as the biggest, went to the window and looked in.
"What do you see, my gray-horse?" asked the rooster. The donkey answered, "I see a table covered with good things to eat and drink, and robbers sitting at it enjoying themselves." "That would be the sort of thing for us," said the rooster. "Yes, yes; ah, how I wish we were there!" said the donkey. Then the animals talked among themselves about how they should manage to drive away the robbers, and at last they had a plan. The donkey was to place himself with his forefeet upon the window-ledge; the hound was to jump on the donkey's back; the cat was to climb upon the dog, and lastly the rooster was to fly up and perch upon the head of the cat.
 When this was done, at a given signal, they began to perform their music together: the donkey hee-hawed, the hound barked, the cat meowed, and the rooster crowed. Then, they burst through the window into the room, so that the glass clattered! At this horrible noise, the robbers sprang up, thinking that a ghost had come in, and fled in a great fright out into the forest. The four companions now sat down at the table, well pleased with what was left, and ate as much as their stomachs could hold.
As soon as the musicians had done, they put out the light, and each sought for himself a sleeping-place according to his nature and what suited him. The donkey laid himself down upon some straw in the yard; the hound, behind the door; the cat, upon the hearth near the warm ashes, and the rooster perched himself upon a beam of the roof. And being tired with their long walk, they soon went to sleep.
When it was past midnight, the robbers saw from afar that the light no longer burned in their house, and all appeared quiet. The leader of the robbers said, "We ought not to have let ourselves be scared out of our wits." He ordered one of his fellow robbers to go and examine the house.
The robber, finding all still, went into the kitchen to light a candle, and, taking the gleaming fiery eyes of the cat for live coals, he held a match to them to light it. But the cat did not understand the joke, and flew into the robber's face, spitting and scratching. He was dreadfully frightened, and ran to the backdoor. But the dog, who lay there, sprang up and bit the robber's leg; and as he ran across the yard by the straw-heap, the donkey gave him a smart kick with its hind foot. The rooster, who had been awakened by the noise, cried down from the beam, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!"
Then the robber ran back as fast as he could to his leader, and said, "Ah, there is a horrible witch sitting in the house, who spat on me and scratched my face with her long claws. And by the door stands a man with a knife, who stabbed me in the leg; and in the yard there lies a black monster, who beat me with a wooden club. And above, upon the roof, sits the judge, who called out, 'Bring the rogue here to me!', so I got away as quick as I could."
After this, the robbers did not trust themselves in the house again; but it suited the four musicians of Bremen so well that they did not care to leave it any more. And the mouth of him, who last told this story, is still warm.
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