Once upon a time, there was a king who had only one son. He wanted to get the prince married and so he arranged a fest to which he invited many beautiful princesses. But the prince told him that he did not like any of the princesses. At this, the king grew very angry with him and told him to leave the palace and not come back till he found himself a wife.

The prince got on his horse and rode into the wide world in search of a bride. As he rode, he came to a big, green forest. Here, at the edge of the forest, he saw a tree that had three golden oranges on it. The prince plucked the oranges, put them in his pocket and rode on.

As the prince rode, the sun beat down hard and the dust rose in clouds. There was not a trace of a home or a well where the prince could have a drink of water, and he was terribly thirsty. After going for a long time and not seeing any sign of getting water, he remembered the oranges in his pocket.

Wanting to quench his thirst by eating one of them, he took his knife and cut an orange. As soon as he had cut it in two, there appeared before him an exceedingly beautiful maiden. She asked the prince for a drop of water to drink as she was very thirsty, but the prince replied that he could not give what he did not have. As soon as he had said this, the maiden vanished. The prince did not know what to do, and went ahead and quenched his thirst by eating the orange.

He resolved that he would not let this happen again, and that he would give the maiden water when she next asked for it. But again, as he rode on and on, there was no water to be had and before long, he had cut the second orange to quench his thirst and the same thing happened.

Making a promise to himself that he would not do the same to the third oirange as well, he rode on. Very soon he could hear the sound of running water by the side of the road. He turned from the road towards the sound and saw that there was a cool, clear spring. He dismounted and drank from the pool formed by the spring till his thirst was quenched.

Then he took the third orange and cut it. When the maiden appeared again, he gave her a drink of water from the spring. As soon as he had done it the maiden did not vanish like the others had. She smiled at the prince and thanked him for saving her, for she had been turned into an orange by an evil witch, and the spell could only be broken by a prince. The prince was so captivated by her beauty that he asked her to be his wife. The maiden, who was herself a princess, readily agreed. The prince took her home and they were married amidst great pomp and splendour.