有个小伙子突然想要去偷东西，他把这个念头跟妈妈一说，妈妈就说：“你不觉得羞耻吗？你马上去忏悔，听听神父给你的劝告。”
小伙子去忏悔，神父说：“偷窃是罪过，但假如你偷窃的对象是贼，罪孽还不算深。”
于是，小伙子来到森林里，找到了一处贼窝，他敲开门，请贼人收下他做仆从。
贼人说：“我们偷东西，但我们并没有罪，因为我们偷的都是些收苛捐杂税的人。”
一天晚上，贼人们出去偷一个收税官的家，小伙子从马厩里挑了最好的骡子，驮了一袋金币溜走了。
他把金币送给妈妈，然后进城去找活干。城里住着一个国王，养了一百只羊。但是没人愿意给他放羊。小伙子去了。国王对他说：“你听着，这里是一百只羊，明天早上你带它们到那边的草场上去放牧，但不要靠近那条小溪，那里有一条大蛇，会把羊吃掉。如果你把羊全给我带回来，我就给你赏钱；但如果你丢了羊，自己又没被蛇吃掉，我就会立即赶你走。”
要去草场，得从王宫的窗户下走过，公主正站在窗前往下边望着。她看见小伙子，顿生爱慕之心，扔给他一块蛋糕。牧羊小伙子一把接住蛋糕，收起来准备牧羊的时候吃。到了草场，他远远看见草丛中有一块白石头，心想：“我正好可以坐在上边吃公主给我的蛋糕。”可是石头在小溪对岸，牧羊小伙子没想太多就跳过小溪，羊群也跟着过来了。
草场上青草茂盛，绵羊都在安静地吃草，小伙子也坐在石头上，吃着蛋糕。突然，他感觉到被石头下的什么东西顶了一下，好像整个世界往下塌陷似的一震。小伙子往四周看看，什么也没有，就继续吃蛋糕。这时从石头下又传来一声更大的响动，牧羊小伙子假装什么也没听到。当第三次震动的时候，从石头下钻出一条长着三个头的蛇，每张嘴都衔着一朵玫瑰，三只头一齐朝着牧羊小伙子伸过来，好像要把玫瑰送给他。小伙子正要伸手去接玫瑰，蛇却张开三张嘴向他猛扑过来，它只消每张嘴咬一口就能把小伙子一下子吃了。好在牧羊小伙子比它更敏捷，他用手里的牧羊棍照每个蛇头上猛力一击，巨蛇被打死了。
然后，他用镰刀把三只蛇头都割了下来，他把两只蛇头装起来，砸开了剩下的那只蛇头，想看看里边是什么。在蛇头里藏着一把水晶钥匙，小伙子搬开石头，发现有道门，门上有一个锁眼。他把水晶钥匙插进去，门开了，里面是一个用水晶做成的雄伟的宫殿。见到小伙子进来，宫殿的门全开了，走出一些水晶仆人，说：“您好主人，有什么吩咐？”
“我命令你们带着我去查看一下我的珍宝。”
这些水晶人拥着他顺着水晶楼梯爬上一座水晶塔，让他看了水晶马厩和里面的水晶马，看了所有的水晶兵器和水晶盔甲。然后，他们陪着他来到一处水晶花园，林阴道两边的水晶树上有一些水晶鸟在欢快地叫着，花坛中的水晶花都在盛开着，花坛四周是一个个水晶池塘。小伙子摘下一小束水晶花，插在帽子上。晚上，小伙子赶着羊群，回到王宫，公主正站在窗前望着，对他说：“你能把帽子上的那束花送给我吗？”
“好的，我送给你。”牧羊小伙子说，“这是一束水晶花，是我从我的水晶城堡里的水晶花园摘来的。”说着，他把花抛给公主，公主接下了。
第二天，小伙子又来到石头那里，砸开了第二个蛇头，里面是一把银钥匙。他抬开石头，把银钥匙插进锁眼，走进一座用银子做成的宫殿。所有的银仆人都跑来说：“主人，请吩咐吧！”他们陪着他看了银厨房，里面正在用银火烤着些银鸡，在银花园里，银孔雀正在开屏，小伙子摘了一小束银花，插在帽子上。到了晚上，他又把银花送给了好奇的公主。
第三天，他又砸开了第三个蛇头，找到一把金钥匙。他把金钥匙插进锁眼，进到一个用金做成的宫殿，里面那些听候他吩咐的人都是金人，从头上戴的假发到脚下的长筒靴都是金的。金床上铺着金床单，金被子，金枕头，金幔帐，鸟笼中飞着金鸟。在一个个金花坛组成的花园中，喷泉喷出的是金泉。小伙子摘了一小束金花，插在帽子上，到了晚上又送给公主了。
有一天，国王发布公告，举行马上比武大会，谁获胜，谁就可以娶公主为妻。牧羊小伙子用水晶钥匙打开门，走进水晶宫殿里，选了一匹水晶马，配好水晶缰绳和水晶马鞍，出现在比武场上。他身披水晶盔甲，手持水晶盾牌和水晶长矛，战胜了所有比武的骑士，然后扬长而去，谁也没有认出他来。
第二天，小伙子骑着鞴了银装饰的银马，身披银盔银甲，手持银矛银盾与又出现在比武场，战胜了所有的骑士后，又不露声色地疾驰而去。到了第三天，小伙子骑着金马，披着金装，又战胜了所有的对手，这时候公主说：“我知道他是谁，他是送给我水晶花、银花和金花的那个人，这些花是从他的水晶城堡、银城堡、金城堡的花园中摘来的。”
就这样他们结了婚，牧羊小伙子后来又当上了国王。
所有的人都心满意足、高高兴兴，
我却一无所得，只是个局外人。
（蒙费拉托地区）
The Three Castles
A boy had taken it into his head to go out and steal. He also told his mother.
"Arent you ashamed!" said his mother. "Go to confession at once, and youll see what the priest has to say to you."
The boy went to confession. "Stealing is a sin," said the priest, "unless you steal from thieves."
The boy went to the woods and found thieves. He knocked at their door and got himself hired as a servant.
"We steal," explained the thieves, "but were not committing a sin, because we rob the tax collectors."
One night when the thieves had gone out to rob a tax collector, the boy led the best mule out of the stable, loaded it with gold pieces, and fled.
He took the gold to his mother, then went to town to look for work. In that town was a king who had a hundred sheep, but no one wanted to be his shepherd. The boy volunteered, and the king said, "Look, there are the hundred sheep. Take them out tomorrow morning to the meadow, but dont cross the brook, because they would be eaten by a serpent on the other side. If you come back with none missing, Ill reward you. Fail to bring them all back, and Ill dismiss you on the spot, unless the serpent has already devoured you too."
To reach the meadow, he had to walk by the kings windows, where the kings daughter happened to be standing. She saw the boy, liked his looks, and threw him a cake. He caught it and carried it along to eat in the meadow. On reaching the meadow, he saw a white stone in the grass and said, "Ill sit down now and eat the cake from the kings daughter." But the stone happened to be on the other side of the brook. The shepherd paid no attention and jumped across the brook, with the sheep all following him.
The grass was high there, and the sheep grazed peacefully, while he sat on the stone eating his cake. All of a sudden he felt a blow under the rock which seemed to shake the world itself. The boy looked all around but, seeing nothing, went on eating his cake. Another blow more powerful than the first followed, but the shepherd ignored it. There was a third blow, and out from under the rock crawled a serpent with three heads. In each of its mouths it held a rose and crawled toward the boy, as though it wanted to offer him the roses. He was about to take them, when the serpent lunged at him with its three mouths all set to gobble him up in three bites. But the little shepherd proved the quicker, clubbing it with his staff over one head and the next and the next until the serpent lay dead.
Then he cut off the three heads with a sickle, putting two of them into his hunting jacket and crushing one to see what was inside. What should he find but a crystal key. The boy raised the stone and saw a door. Slipping the key into the lock and turning it, he found himself inside a splendid palace of solid crystal. Through all the doors came servants of crystal. "Good day, my lord, what are your wishes?"
"I wish to be shown all my treasures."
So they took him up crystal stairs into crystal towers; they showed him crystal stables with crystal horses and arms and armor of solid crystal. Then they led him into a crystal garden down avenues of crystal trees in which crystal birds sang, past flowerbeds where crystal flowers blossomed around crystal pools. The boy picked a small bunch of flowers and stuck the bouquet in his hat. When he brought the sheep home that night, the kings daughter was looking out the window and said, "May I have those flowers in your hat?"
"You certainly may," said the shepherd. "They are crystal flowers culled from the crystal garden of my solid crystal castle." He tossed her the bouquet, which she caught.
When he got back to the stone the next day, he crushed a second serpent head and found a silver key. He lifted the stone, slipped the silver key into the lock and entered a solid silver palace. Silver servants came running up saying, "Command, our lord!" They took him off to show him silver kitchens, where silver chickens roasted over silver fires, and silver gardens where silver peacocks spread their tails. The boy picked a little bunch of silver flowers and stuck them in his hat. That night he gave them to the kings daughter when she asked for them.
The third day, he crushed the third head and found a gold key. He slipped the key into the lock and entered a solid gold palace, where his servents were gold too, from wig to boots; the beds were gold, with gold sheets, pillows, and canopy; and in the aviaries fluttered hundreds of gold birds. In a garden of gold flowerbeds and fountains with gold sprays, he picked a small bunch of gold flowers to stick in his hat and gave them to the kings daughter that night.
Now the king announced a tournament, and the winner would have his daughter in marriage. The shepherd unlocked the door with the crystal key, entered the crystal palace and chose a crystal horse with crystal bridle and saddle, and thus rode to the tournament in crystal armor and carrying a crystal lance. He defeated all the other knights and fled without revealing who he was.
The next day he returned on a silver horse with trappings of silver, dressed in silver armor and carrying his silver lance and shield. He defeated everyone and fled, still unknown to all. The third day he returned on a gold horse, outfitted entirely in gold. He was victorious the third time as well, and the princess said, "I know who you are. Youre the man who gave me flowers of crystal, silver, and gold, from the gardens of your castles of crystal, silver, and gold."
So they got married, and the little shepherd became king.
And all were very happy and gay,
But to me who watched they gave no thought nor pay.
(Monferrato)
NOTES:
"The Three Castles" (I tre castelli) from Comparetti, 62 and 22, Monferrato, Piedmont.
These two Piedmontese tales are variants of a single type. I took the beginning from one and concluded with the other. Nothing was added; I merely underlined a few elements already in the text (such as the tax collector) and the rhythm.
Copyright: Italian Folktales Selected and Retold by Italo Calvino,
translated by George Martin,
Pantheon Books, New York 1980