There was a poor farmer in the country. He had a wife with a warm heart. The only things they had were a small piece of rice field, a farm and a horse.

One day, the farmer said to his wife. "We have to exchange the horse with other goods¹, tomorrow at the market." "Yes, we do. We don't need a horse because we have no chance of going far away." His wife agreed with him.

The next day, the farmer went to the market riding on horseback. He found a good cow while he was looking around the market. 'Mm. That cow will be good. We will be able to drink fresh milk everyday².' The farmer smiled and went close to the cow.

"If you want to sell this cow, how about exchanging your cow with my horse?" The owner of the cow took a look at the horse for a while. He felt strange because the horse was much more expensive than the cow. The horse looked healthy on the whole. The owner of the cow laughed loudly and agreed to the deal.

The farmer was very happy, too. 'Everything's okay. Now I have to go back to my house.' As he walked not a long distance with the cow, he saw a plump³, soft-haired goat⁴. Suddenly he wanted to have the goat. 'It would be much easier to raise a goat than a cow. And goat's milk tastes good.'

"Hey, why don't we exchange your goat with my cow?" The owner of the goat thought that was a golden⁵ opportunity⁶, after he heard the farmer. "Of course, I'll be glad to." This was how the farmer exchanged his cow with the goat.

'Today is my lucky day.' The farmer even hummed to himself. After a while, he saw a young man holding a goose tightly⁷ with his two hands. 'That goose looks very healthy. Its hair is rich. It would be nice if we could raise such a great goose in our depression⁸.' The farmer wanted to have the goose, so he exchanged his goat with the goose.

After a short time, he met a guy who was holding a cute hen in his arms. 'Cock-a-doodle-do, cock-a-doodle-do!' The hen's voice sounded very healthy. 'What a nice hen!' This time, he also wanted to have the hen. The farmer approached⁹ the guy and asked him to exchange his goose with the hen. Of course the owner of the hen agreed to his suggestion.

It was already late afternoon when he exchanged his animals several times. 'Oh, I am hungry! I am going to have lunch in a restaurant.' The farmer held his hen and headed to a restaurant. A young man was carrying a heavy bag on his shoulder in front of the restaurant.

"Look, young man. What's inside of that bag?" He looked at the bag and asked. "Oh, This? These are rotten¹⁰ apples. "The young man said.

'Rotten apples? We had only one apple from our apple trees last year. That's amazing that he has such a lot of apples. If we use those rotten apples as fertilizer¹¹, our trees will bear lots of apples, too.' The farmer exchanged his hen with the rotten apples.

Then, he went into the restaurant and had lunch. And he told his story how he happened to exchange one thing and another, and finally he got the rotten apples. An rich old man listened to the farmer's story and said, "You are such a hopeless¹² fellow¹³. If you go back to your house, your wife will be mad at you." "No way. My wife has never been angry at me." "All right, if your wife will not be angry about your story today, I will give you a package of gold coins."

After that, the farmer went back to his house with the old rich man. And he told his wife the whole story about how he came back with the rotten apples. Then, his wife said, "Oh, that's great. We will have as many apples as those rotten apples." The farmer's wife even smiled happily.

In the end, the old rich man had to give them a package of gold coins. Therefore¹⁴ the farmer became very rich.