“He too moved the prince's heart, and again he did not harm him.
“Now, prince, for your good deed you may expect good; I will reward you,” said the stork.

“Poor stork, how can you ever repay me?” asked the king's son.
“They do say, honourable prince,” said the stork, ”that mountain and mountain shall never meet; a living being, however, may well meet another living being at any time.”
The king's son was happy to hear these words and went on.

“After thus walking for quite some time, he came to a big impenetrable wood and entered it. There he lost his way and could not find it anymore.

“Suddenly he saw the golden-bearded man standing in front of him. He smiled and said kindly, ”I know well that you have left the kingdom because of me and therefore I will keep you with me, for you have set me free. If you do everything as I tell you, you shall be fine. Of riches and gold I have enough, more than anyone in the world.” He made a bed of moss on which the boy went to sleep.

“The next morning the man took him to a well and said, ”Look here, the golden well is clear and bright like a crystal: sit here and make sure that nothing falls into it lest it is disgraced.

“Every evening I will come and see if you have followed my order.”

“The boy sat down at the edge of the well; he saw how sometimes a golden fish, sometimes a golden snake appeared and he made sure that nothing fell into it.

“As he sat there, his finger hurt so much that spontaneously he put it into the water.
As he took it out again he saw that it was all gilded, and no matter how much he tried to wipe off the gold, it was all in vain.

“In the evening the man with the golden beard came back, looked at the boy and said, ”What happened to the well?”
And the little boy did not answer anything; he just looked down to the ground and kept his finger shyly behind his back so the man could not see it directly.

“You dipped your finger into the water,” the man said.
“This time it is fine, but make sure you Don't let anything else fall into it.”

“Very early in the morning the little boy sat at the well again and guarded it.
Again his finger hurt, and he rubbed his head with it; unfortunately a hair fell down into the well.

“He took it out quickly but it was all gilded already, and his fingers too.