Once there were two brothers, Dmitri, a rich man and Ivan, a poor widower. While Dmitri lived in luxury, Ivan and his young daughter lived in a poor cottage. One day, both the brothers went riding to the market, Dmitri on his fine stallion and Ivan on his mare. They stopped to rest for the night. In the morning, they found that there was a foal near the horses. Since the mare was his, Ivan claimed that it was his. But Dmitri said that the foal was standing near the stallion, and so it was his.

The brothers took their case to the Emperor. The Emperor wanted to have a little fun with them, and though he knew the stallion could not have given birth to the foal, he sent the brothers off with four questions - What is the fastest thing in the world? What is the fattest? What is the softest? And what is the most precious? The one who managed to answer all four questions correctly would get the foal.

Off went Dmitri to his house, but could not find anyone to help him with the answers. So he went to his neighbour, a shrewd woman who had borrowed a silver coin from him. He asked her to help him in return for having the debt wiped off. Happy at this opportunity, the woman told him that the fastest thing in the world was her husband's bay mare, the fattest was her pig, the softest the quilt she made for her dear son, who was the most precious thing in the world.

Ivan went home and told his daughter the questions. Having been without a mother all her life, the daughter was wise beyond her years, and immediately told her father not to worry. She told him that the fastest thing in the world was the cold north wind, the fattest, the land that fed everyone, the softest, a child's caress and the most precious, honesty.

When the two brothers stood before the king and gave their answers, he roared with laughter at Dmitri's foolish answers. But when he heard Ivan's answers, he was troubled, as he knew that he hadn't been fair to him. He asked Ivan who had given him the answers, and Ivan told him that it was his little daughter. The Emperor was intrigued by the wisdom of the girl and wanted to test her further. So he told Ivan that she must visit him in the court a week from then. She should come neither dressed nor naked, neither on foot nor on horseback, neither bearing a gift nor empty-handed. If she did, Ivan would get the foal and a hundred silver pieces. If not, he would lose his head.

Ivan was very sad when he heard this and went home and told his daughter what had happened. But she only smiled and asked him to get her a fishing net, a live hare and a live partridge before they went to meet the Emperor. This Ivan did, and on the specified day, they set out for the Emperor's court.

At the court of the Emperor, a huge crowd had gathered, waiting to see what would happen. Ivan and his daughter entered. She had draped the fishing net about herself, was riding on the hare and held the partridge in one hand. She approached the Emperor and held out the partridge. As he reached out to take it, she let go of it, and it flew away out of his reach. Seeing that all his conditions had been fulfilled, the Emperor asked the little girl if they were very poor.

She answered telling him that they were so poor that they had to live off fishes plucked from trees and hares caught from the river. The Emperor asked her how there could be fishes in trees and hares in rivers. She told him that in a land where stallions could give birth to foals, trees would bear fishes and hares would live in the rivers.

The Emperor was very pleased with her and gave Ivan the foal and a hundred silver coins as he had promised.