«You must remember, there’s always something cleverer than yourself.»
Merlin
The original brothers Grimm version, using the translation by Margaret Hunt as basis, had the peasant outwitting a devil. I added a reason (devil found the treasure and does not want to share) and removed the devil’s strange desire for the fruits of the earth.
The Peasant and the Devil
There was once a peasant who had been working in his field. When twilight fell, he saw a heap of burning coals in the middle of his field.
Full of astonishment, he picked up a hay-fork, went over to the heap, and found a little black devil sitting on the hot coals.
«Are you sitting on a treasure?» asked the peasant.
«Yes,» replied the devil. «On a treasure containing more gold and silver than you have ever seen in your life! I found it, and therefore it is mine.»
«You found it,» said the peasant, «but you found it beneath my field. Take half for the finding, and I shall take half for the land.»
«I will have no half,» said the devil. «I found it, and I will have the whole.»
«If half will not content you,» said the peasant, «let us put the matter to a bargain. For two years, we shall divide whatever this field produces. After the second harvest, if what you have gathered is worth as much as what I have gathered, the treasure shall be yours. If mine is worth more, you shall give up your claim to it. And so that there may be no dispute over the division, everything above ground shall belong to you, and everything beneath the earth to me.»
The devil was well pleased with this and agreed at once.
But when sowing time came, the peasant sowed turnips.
At harvest time, the devil returned to claim his share. He found nothing but yellow, withered leaves, while the peasant dug up the turnips.
«You had the best of it this time,» said the devil, «but next time that will not do. What grows above the ground shall be yours, and what grows beneath it shall be mine.»
«I am willing,» replied the peasant.
And when sowing time came again, he did not sow turnips, but wheat.
The wheat ripened, and the peasant went into the field and cut the ripe stalks close to the ground.
When the devil came, he found nothing but stubble. In a fury, he vanished down into a cleft in the rocks.
Then the peasant took his spade and went to the place where the coals had burned. Before midnight, the treasure lay beneath his roof.