Once upon a time, there was a sweet little girl. Everyone who met her loved her, but her grandmother loved her most of all. One day, the grandmother gave her a small cap made of red velvet. It looked so beautiful on her that the girl never wanted to wear anything else. Because of this, everyone called her "Little Red-Cap."
One morning, her mother said, "Little Red-Cap, here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine. Take them to your grandmother. She is ill and weak, and this will help her feel better. Start your journey now before it gets too hot. Walk carefully on the path and do not run. If you fall, you might break the bottle, and then grandmother will have nothing. When you arrive, remember to say ‘Good morning’ politely."
"I will be very careful," Little Red-Cap promised.
The grandmother lived in the woods, about half an hour from the village. As soon as Little Red-Cap entered the forest, she met a wolf. She did not know that he was a dangerous animal, so she was not afraid of him.
"Good day, Little Red-Cap," the wolf said.
"Thank you, wolf," she replied.
"Where are you going so early?"
"To my grandmother’s house."
"What are you carrying in your apron?"
"Cake and wine. Grandmother is sick, so I am bringing her something good to make her stronger."
"And where does she live?" asked the wolf.
"Further into the wood, under the three large oak trees," she answered.
The wolf thought to himself, "What a tasty young girl! She will be much better to eat than the old woman. I must be clever so I can catch them both."
He walked beside the girl for a while and said, "Look at these beautiful flowers, Little Red-Cap. Why don’t you stop and look around? The birds are singing so sweetly, but you are walking straight ahead as if you are going to school!"
Little Red-Cap looked up and saw the sunlight dancing through the trees and the colorful flowers everywhere. She thought, "If I take a bunch of fresh flowers to grandmother, she will be very happy." So, she left the path and ran into the trees. Every time she picked a flower, she saw an even prettier one further away, and soon she was deep in the forest.
Meanwhile, the wolf ran straight to the grandmother’s house and knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" a weak voice asked.
"It’s Little Red-Cap," the wolf lied. "I have brought cake and wine. Open the door."
"Just lift the latch," called the grandmother. "I am too weak to get up."
The wolf lifted the latch, the door opened, and he ran straight to the bed and swallowed the grandmother in one bite. Then, he put on her clothes and her cap, climbed into the bed, and pulled the curtains shut.
Later, Little Red-Cap finally had so many flowers that she couldn't carry any more. She remembered her grandmother and hurried to the house. She was surprised to find the door open. When she entered the room, she felt very uneasy.
"Good morning," she called out, but there was no answer. She went to the bed and pulled back the curtains. There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled down over her face. She looked very strange.
"Oh, grandmother," she said, "what big ears you have!"
"The better to hear you with, my child," the wolf replied.
"But grandmother, what big eyes you have!"
"The better to see you with, my dear."
"But grandmother, what large hands you have!"
"The better to hug you with."
"Oh, but grandmother, what a terrible, big mouth you have!"
"The better to eat you with!"
The wolf jumped out of bed and swallowed poor Little Red-Cap.
The wolf was now full. He lay back down, fell asleep, and began to snore loudly. A huntsman was passing the house and thought, "Why is that old woman snoring so loudly? I should check if she is okay."
He went inside and saw the wolf in the bed. "I finally found you, you old sinner!" the huntsman said. He was about to shoot, but then he thought that the grandmother might still be alive inside the wolf. Instead of shooting, he took a pair of scissors and began to cut open the sleeping wolf’s stomach.
After a few cuts, he saw a red cap. Then, the little girl jumped out, crying, "I was so scared! It was so dark inside the wolf!" Then the grandmother came out alive, though she could hardly breathe. Little Red-Cap quickly fetched some heavy stones and they put them inside the wolf’s belly. When the wolf woke up and tried to run away, the stones were so heavy that he fell down dead.
The huntsman took the wolf's skin home. The grandmother ate the cake, drank the wine, and felt much better. And Little Red-Cap thought to herself, "I will never leave the path again when my mother tells me not to."