In "The Three Sillies," a young woman, her mother, and her father become paralyzed with worry over the purely hypothetical danger of a hammer falling from a cellar beam onto the head of her future, yet-unborn son. Her visiting boyfriend finds their premature grief utterly foolish, calls them "sillies," and vows to travel the world, only returning to marry her if he encounters three even bigger examples of silliness. His travels quickly reveal absurdities: a woman trying to hoist her cow onto the roof to eat grass, a man struggling futilely to jump into his trousers, and villagers attempting to rake the moon's reflection out of a pond. Realizing that foolishness is widespread and his potential in-laws are not unique, he returns to marry the daughter, highlighting the story's theme about the absurdity of worrying excessively about improbable future events.

In "The Three Sillies," a young woman, her mother, and her father become paralyzed with worry over the purely hypothetical danger of a hammer falling from a cellar beam onto the head of her future, yet-unborn son. Her visiting boyfriend finds their...

The Three Sillies | Fairy Tales