What do a donkey, a dog, and cat, and a rooster all have in common? In the case of these four animals, they are all out of work and threatened by their masters to be killed. Not wishing to die anytime soon, the four animals decide to join forces and become town musicians together. But it’s a long way to Bremen, and the four of them decide to stop at a nearby house.
Inside the house, they can see a sumptuous feast—also in the house are three sleeping thieves! The donkey, dog, cat and rooster have not escaped death only to be set back by a couple of thieves so they all set to barking and crowing and mewing and braying, and make such a ruckus that the thieves run out of the house, terrified out of their wits. The four musicians sit down at the table, and celebrate their victory with the rest of the feast. Once the thieves have calmed down a bit, they creep back to the house, all ready to take over. But the four animals are ready for them, and give them such a beating that the robbers don’t dare go back.
As for the four Bremen town musicians, they’ve stayed at the house ever since.