Once upon a time there was a man who could not afford the rent for his house.

The landlord said, "Listen to me, Jan, if you cannot pay the rent, you'll have to get out."

"Oh well," Jan said to his wife, "in that case I suppose we'll have to slaughter our only cow. That'll give us something to eat and we can sell the skin, which will cover at least a part of our rent."

He went to the market with the skin. He stood there in the rain and the wind for over three hours, but nobody came to have a look at the skin. Evening was beginning to fall and he did not have a clue what to do next. Close to where he stood were the windows of the town hall. The light was on in one of the rooms, and the gentlemen of the town hall were counting a large sum of money.

Jan thought, I wish I had that money.

He did not waste too much time thinking about it, crawled inside the animal skin, and rushed up the stairs of the town hall, roaring and stamping. He gave the gentlemen a right start. They fled and left their money and all behind. Jan quickly crawled out of the skin and filled it with money, which he took home with him.

"Wife," he said, "go to our neighbour to lend his potato measure, for I want to measure the money with it."

The wife got the measure and Jan measured four gallons of money in small change, dimes and quarters. The next day he went to pay the landlord.

"Well, Jan," said the landlord, "where did you get all this money?"

"Well, sir, I slaughtered one of my animals, and skins are expensive on the market."

"Really?"

"Yes, I got four gallons of money for it."

"Well," said the landlord, "in that case I will also sell two animal skins on the market."

And he sent his servant to the market with the skins of his two best milk cows. While the servant was standing at the market with the skins, a Jew came by to ask how much he wanted for them.

"Four gallons," he told the Jew.

"Oh dear, me and my entire family don't have as much as four gallons of money."

So the servant returned home with the skins.

"No sale?"

"No, sir, they were not even prepared to offer as much as ten guilders. The Jew made an offer of two guilders."

Then the landlord went to see Jan, but Jan had seen him coming and said to his wife, "You should do some complaining to me, and tell me that I'm bad, and then I will stab you to death; wait, let me hide the guts with blood under your clothes, so I can stick my knife into that."

"By God, Jan," said the landlord, "what a liar you are! Imagine deceiving someone like that!"

"Yes!" the wife called out. "Jan is a mean guy. He's no good, I'm telling you. He's always lying to me, too."

"Ah," said Jan, "you impertinent woman!"

He took a knife and stabbed her. The blood spurted out and she fell backwards.

"Well, Jan," said the landlord, "look at that spectacle; you've stabbed your wife to death."

"Oh sir," said Jan, "take no notice of it. It's nothing, really."

He took an ordinary pennywhistle, blew it three times, and then his wife came back to life.

"Gosh, Jan, you should sell that whistle to me."

"No," said Jan, "no way."

"Oh, please."

"Well," said Jan, "for a thousand guilders you can have the whistle."

Then the landlord did something he normally never did: He went to the inn, drank until he was drunk, and then went home.

His wife said, "Man, have you lost your senses? What's the meaning of such vulgar behaviour? First you slaughter two perfectly good fat milk cows at the same time, and then you squander all the money at the inn. It's a disgrace!"

"Shut up, woman, or I'll stab you to death."

He very much felt like doing so, now that he had the whistle to blow on to bring her back to life.

He argued so long that his wife said, "You're drunk, man!"

And then he stabbed her to death.

It's nothing, he thought, and blew the whistle. Three times, six times, and more, but it was of no avail: The woman was really dead. In anger he rushed to Jan's.

"Jan, you cheat, you lied about everything again."

Jan had seen him coming again. There was a pot of pea soup bubbling on the fire.

"Wife," he said, "the landlord is coming. Put the pot behind the door quickly. The soup will continue cooking, it is very close to the boil."

"Jan, what have you got there in that pot that's boiling so much?"

"Sir, we always cook in that magic pot without any fire. We put the pot behind the door and it will cook by itself."

"How much do you ask for that pot? 'Cause now my wife is dead, the maid will have to do all the work on her own and she will find it very easy to cook with the pot without any fire."

"Yes," Jan said, "a bag full of money, 'cause such a pot is worth a lot. From now on, I'll have to buy wood and peat again continuously."

The landlord took the pot home with him and told the maid to just put the potatoes and the other food into it and then put the pot behind the door, so it would be well done by itself.

Yes, the maid thought, I bet Jan has played you another one of his tricks. But she was obedient and put the pot behind the door. She took a look inside it from time to time, but the potatoes stayed as raw as ever they were. When the landlord came home in the afternoon and wanted to have his dinner, he saw that Jan had deceived him and that the pot was as common as could be.

He went back to Jan again. "This is the absolute limit! You deceived me again! Now I've lost my patience. I think you'll have to be drowned."

He and his servant tied Jan up inside a bag and dragged him towards the water, but because this was quite a heavy load, the landlord first took his servant to the inn to have a glass of beer with him. For the time being, they left Jan in the bag near the water. Jan had heard everything, but could not get out of the bag.

He started calling out inside the bag, "Who wants to marry the king's daughter?"

And then again.

Then a farmer with a flock of sheep came by. He walked up to the bag and said to Jan, "I would want to."

"All right," Jan said. "I didn't want to and for that reason they want to drown me now. Please open the bag."

So the farmer did and crawled inside the bag, which Jan closed firmly.

The men returned from the inn and the farmer cried as loud as he could, "Yes, I want to!"

And then they said, "It's just as well that you want to, 'cause you're gonna have to anyway."

And so they tossed him into the water and the farmer drowned. In the meantime, Jan had gone home with the sheep. In the afternoon, Jan encountered the landlord.

"Heavens above, Jan, where do you come from? Is it really you?"

"Oh yes," said Jan, "I'll tell you where I come from. Down there in that canal there were so many, absolutely wonderful things! It's hardly to be believed, they wanted to give me so many things. Even a carriage with six horses, but I couldn't get that out on my own.

"Oh, you idiot," the landlord said. "I could help you with that, right?"

"Okay," said Jan, "just you crawl inside this bag; I will soon hop in too."

The landlord crawled into the bag. Jan rolled it into the water and the landlord drowned.