En mand og en kone sad engang uden for huset og skulle lige til at spise en stegt høne. Da så manden, at hans gamle far kom gående, og gemte i en fart hønen, fordi han ikke undte ham noget af den. Den gamle kom derhen, fik lidt at drikke, og gik så videre. Sønnen ville nu hente den stegte høne, men den var blevet til en stor skrubtudse, som sprang op i ansigtet på ham og blev siddende der. Når nogen ville tage den væk, så den så ondt på ham, som om den ville springe over på ham, og derfor turde ingen røre ved den. Hver dag måtte den utaknemlige søn fodre skrubtudsen, ellers åd den hans ansigt, og han vandrede om i verden uden et øjebliks fred.
A man and his wife were once sitting by the door of their house, and they had a roasted chicken set before them, and were about to eat it together. Then the man saw that his aged father was coming, and hastily took the chicken and hid it, for he would not permit him to have any of it. The old man came, took a drink, and went away. Now the son wanted to put the roasted chicken on the table again, but when he took it up, it had become a great toad, which jumped into his face and sat there and never went away again, and if any one wanted to take it off, it looked venomously at him as if it would jump in his face, so that no one would venture to touch it. And the ungrateful son was forced to feed the toad every day, or else it fed itself on his face; and thus he went about the world without knowing rest.