A certain king had three sons, all of whom he loved so much that he did not know which he should name to be king after him. When the day of his death approached, he called them to his bedside, and thus spoke to them: “Dear children, I have something on my mind that I wish to tell you; whichever of you is the laziest, he shall be king when I am dead.”

“Then, father, the kingdom belongs to me,” said the eldest son; “for I am so lazy, that if I lie down to sleep, and tears come into my eyes, so that I cannot close them, I yet go to sleep without wiping them away!”

“The kingdom belongs to me,” cried the second son; “for I am so lazy that when I sit by the fire to warm myself, I allow my boots to scorch before I will draw away my feet!”

But the third son said: “The kingdom is mine, father, for I am so lazy that, were I about to be hanged, and even had I the rope round my neck, and any one should give me a sharp sword to cut it with, I should suffer myself to be swung off before I took the trouble to cut the rope!”

As soon as the father heard this, he said to his youngest son: “You have shown yourself the laziest of all, and you shall be king.”