Once, there lived a poor woodcutter with his wife and seven sons. The youngest son was called ‘Tom Thumb’ because he was as tiny as a thumb.
One night, Tom Thumb heard his parents whisper, “We have no money to feed our sons. So, we should leave them in the forest.”
Next morning, Tom Thumb woke up early and went to the riverside. He filled up his pockets with white pebbles. As the woodcutter’s family walked into the forest, Tom Thumb dropped the pebbles on the way throughout.
While the children were busy playing, the woodcutter and his wife quietly left. Soon, the children realised that they were alone and started crying. But Tom Thumb said, “Don’t worry, brothers; I will take you home.” They followed the trail of the white pebbles and reached home.
Seeing them, the woodcutter said to his wife, “I guess we must leave the children deep inside the forest, so that they may not find their way back home.”
Tom Thumb heard this and tried to go to the riverside the next morning, but the door was locked. So, he dropped small crumbs of bread along the path to the forest. Unfortunately, the birds ate the bread-crumbs and the poor children could not get out of the forest. They saw a light from a house in the forest and went up to it.
The house belonged to an Ogre. His wife opened the door and let the boys hide under the bed of her daughters’ bedroom.
Tiny Tom Thumb took the seven crowns from the Ogre’s daughters and replaced them with the caps that he and his brothers wore. He then filled his pockets with the jewels from the Ogre’s cupboard, woke his brothers up, and they quietly ran away.
When the Ogre came home, he smelt human flesh and looked around. When he saw the caps, he was about to kill his daughters mistaking them for humans. But his wife stopped him. She told him about the boys.
The angry Ogre ran after the boys. After a lot of running, the tired Ogre sat on a big rock and fell asleep. A poisonous snake lived under that rock. He didn’t like being disturbed. So, he bit the Ogre who died instantly.
Meanwhile, Tom Thumb and his brothers reached home with the jewels and lived happily with their parents and were never poor again.
