In order to make himself appear more important, a miller lies to a king, telling him that his daughter can spin straw into gold. In reality, the girl is lazy and has never learned to spin at all. The king calls for the girl, shuts her in a tower room filled with straw and a spinning wheel, and demands that she spin the straw into gold by morning, or he will strike off her head (other versions have the king threatening to lock her up in a dungeon forever). She has given up all hope, when an impish creature appears in the room and promises to spin the straw into gold for her in return for her necklace. When the king takes the girl on the next morning to a larger room filled with straw, the imp spins in return for the girl's ring. On the third day, when the girl has been taken to a still-larger room filled with straw and told by the king that he will marry her if she can fill this room with gold and kill her if she cannot, the girl has nothing left with which to pay the strange creature. He extracts from her a promise that her firstborn child will be given to him, and spins the room full of gold a final time.The king keeps his promise to marry the miller's daughter, but when their first child is born, the imp returns to claim his payment: "Now give me what you promised." The now-queen offers him all the wealth she has if she can keep the child. The imp has no interest in her riches but finally consents to give up his claim to the child if the queen is able to guess his name within three days.
