There was a farmer who had a faithful dog, called Sultan, who had grown old and had lost all his teeth, so that he could no longer grasp anything tightly. At one time the farmer stood with his wife in front of the house door and said "I'll shoot the old Sultan dead tomorrow, he's no good for anything anymore." The woman, who had pity on the faithful animal, replied "since he has served us for so long a year and kept honestly with us, we might as well give him a reprieve." "Well," said the man, "you are not quite clever: he has not a tooth left in his mouth, and no thief is afraid of him, he can go now. If he has served us, he has got his good food for it."

The poor dog, who lay stretched out in the sun not far away, had heard everything and was sad that tomorrow would be his last day. He had a good friend, that was the wolf, to whom he crept out into the forest in the evening and lamented the fate that was in store for him. "Listen, old man," said the wolf, "be of good cheer, I want to help you out of your misery. I have thought of something. Tomorrow early in the morning your master and his wife will go to the hay, and they will take their little child with them, because no one will stay behind in the house. They are used to put the child behind the hedge in the shade while they are working: lie down next to it as if you wanted to guard it. Then I want to come out of the forest and steal the child: you have to jump after me eagerly, as if you wanted to steal it from me again. I will drop it, and you will bring it back to the parents, who will then think you have saved it, and are much too grateful to do you any harm: on the contrary, you will come into complete grace, and they will want for nothing more."

The plot pleased the dog, and as it was thought out, so it was executed. The father cried out when he saw the wolf running through the field with his child, but when the old sultan brought him back, he was glad, stroked him and said "not a hair on your head shall be harmed, you shall eat the bread of mercy as long as you live. But to his wife he said, "Go straight home and cook the old sultan a wake-up porridge, which he need not bite, and bring the pillow from my bed, which I will give him for his bed." From now on, the old sultan was as comfortable as he could wish. Soon after, the wolf visited him and was pleased that everything had turned out so well. "But," he said, "you will turn a blind eye if I take a fat sheep away from your master on occasion. It's getting hard to get by these days." "Don't count on it," replied the dog, "I remain faithful to my master, I must not admit that." The wolf, thinking this was not spoken seriously, crept up in the night and wanted to get the sheep. But the farmer, to whom the faithful Sultan had betrayed the wolf's intention, watched him and nastily combed his hair with the flail. The wolf had to run away, but shouted to the dog "wait, you bad fellow, you shall pay for this."

The next morning the wolf sent the pig, and let the dog demand out into the forest, there they wanted to settle their matter. The old sultan could find no help but a cat, which had only three legs, and when they went out together, the poor cat limped along and at the same time stretched its tail up in pain. The wolf and his assistant were already on the spot, but when they saw their opponent coming, they thought he was carrying a saber, because they saw the cat's raised tail as a saber. And when the poor animal hopped on three legs like that, they thought nothing else than that it would pick up a stone every time and wanted to throw it at them. Then they both became afraid. The wild pig hid in the leaves, and the wolf jumped up a tree. The dog and the cat, when they approached, were surprised that no one could be seen. The wild pig, however, had not been able to hide itself completely in the foliage, but its ears were still sticking out. While the cat looked around thoughtfully, the pig tweaked its ears: the cat, thinking that a mouse was stirring, jumped towards it and took a hearty bite. Then the pig rose up with a great cry, ran away and shouted "there on the tree there sits the guilty one". The dog and the cat looked up and saw the wolf, who was ashamed that he had shown himself so fearfully and accepted peace from the dog.