In a village dwelt a poor old woman, who had gathered together a dish of beans and wanted to cook them. So she made a fire on her hearth, and that it might burn the quicker, she lighted it with a handful of straw. When she was emptying the beans into the pan, one dropped without her observing it, and lay on the ground beside a straw, and soon afterwards a burning coal from the fire leapt down to the two. Then the straw began and said: ‘Dear friends, from whence do you come here?’ The coal replied: ‘I fortunately sprang out of the fire, and if I had not escaped by sheer force, my death would have been certain,--I should have been burnt to ashes.’ The bean said: ‘I too have escaped with a whole skin, but if the old woman had got me into the pan, I should have been made into broth without any mercy, like my comrades.’ ‘And would a better fate have fallen to my lot?’ said the straw. ‘The old woman has destroyed all my brethren in fire and smoke; she seized sixty of them at once, and took their lives. I luckily slipped through her fingers.’
村里住着一位贫穷的老妇人，她收集了一盘豆子想要煮来吃。于是她在炉灶上生起火，为了让火燃得更快些，她用一把稻草点燃了它。当她把豆子倒入锅中时，有一颗豆子掉落在地，未被她察觉，它躺在地上的一根稻草旁边。不久后，一颗燃烧的煤块从火中跳落下来，正好落在它们两个身上。于是稻草开口说话了：‘亲爱的朋友们，你们是从哪里来的？’煤块回答说：‘我幸运地从火中跳出，如果不是靠蛮力逃脱，我必死无疑——我会被烧成灰烬。’豆子说：‘我也侥幸保全了全身，但如果老妇人把我放进锅里，我就会像我的同伴一样，被无情地煮成汤。’稻草问道：‘那我难道会有更好的命运吗？老妇人已经用火烧和烟熏毁了我的所有兄弟姐妹；她一次就抓住了六十根，夺去了它们的性命。我幸运地从她指缝间溜走了。’
‘But what are we to do now?’ said the coal.
‘可是我们现在该怎么办呢？’煤块说道。
‘I think,’ answered the bean, ‘that as we have so fortunately escaped death, we should keep together like good companions, and lest a new mischance should overtake us here, we should go away together, and repair to a foreign country.’
‘我想，’豆子回答说，‘既然我们如此幸运地逃过了死劫，我们就应该像好朋友一样团结在一起，以免新的不幸在这里降临，我们应该一起离开，前往异国他乡。’
The proposition pleased the two others, and they set out on their way together. Soon, however, they came to a little brook, and as there was no bridge or foot-plank, they did not know how they were to get over it. The straw hit on a good idea, and said: ‘I will lay myself straight across, and then you can walk over on me as on a bridge.’ The straw therefore stretched itself from one bank to the other, and the coal, who was of an impetuous disposition, tripped quite boldly on to the newly-built bridge. But when she had reached the middle, and heard the water rushing beneath her, she was after all, afraid, and stood still, and ventured no farther. The straw, however, began to burn, broke in two pieces, and fell into the stream. The coal slipped after her, hissed when she got into the water, and breathed her last. The bean, who had prudently stayed behind on the shore, could not but laugh at the event, was unable to stop, and laughed so heartily that she burst. It would have been all over with her, likewise, if, by good fortune, a tailor who was travelling in search of work, had not sat down to rest by the brook. As he had a compassionate heart he pulled out his needle and thread, and sewed her together. The bean thanked him most prettily, but as the tailor used black thread, all beans since then have a black seam.
这个提议让另外两个伙伴都很满意，于是它们一同踏上了旅程。然而不久后，它们来到了一条小溪边，由于没有桥或木板，它们不知道该如何过河。稻草想出了一个好主意，说道：‘我把自己笔直地横铺过去，然后你们就可以像走桥一样从我身上走过去。’于是稻草从河的一岸伸展到另一岸，而性格急躁的煤块便大胆地踏上了这座新搭起的桥。但当它走到中间，听到脚下流水哗哗作响时，终究还是害怕了，停住脚步，不敢再往前走。这时，稻草开始燃烧，断成两截，掉进了溪流中。煤块随后滑落水中，发出嘶嘶声，最终气绝身亡。而谨慎地留在岸边的豆子见状忍不住大笑起来，笑得无法停止，甚至笑破了肚子。它本也会遭遇同样的结局，幸好一位正在四处寻找工作的裁缝路过此地，坐在溪边休息。由于他心地善良，便拿出针线将豆子缝了起来。豆子非常感激地谢过他，但因为裁缝用的是黑线，所以从那以后，所有的豆子上都有一条黑色的缝线。