The next day, the family walk deep into the woods and the children lay a trail of white pebbles behind them. After their parents abandon them, the children wait for the moon to rise and illuminate the pebbles. They return home safely, much to their parents’ horror. A week or so later, the mother angrily orders her husband to take the children further into the woods and leave them there to die. Hansel and Gretel attempt to gather more pebbles, but find the doors locked and escape impossible.

The following morning, Hansel takes a slice of bread and leaves a trail of breadcrumbs for them to follow. However after they are once again abandoned, they find that the birds have eaten the crumbs and they are lost in the woods. After days of wandering, they follow a beautiful white pigeon to a clearing in the woods, and discover a cottage built of cake and gingerbread. They greedily begin to eat the rooftop of the house, when the door opens and a hideous old crone emerges and lures the children inside, with the promise of soft beds and delicious food.

What Hansel and Gretel do not know is that the hag is in fact a cannibalistic witch who built the house to entice children into her clutches, so that she may eat them. She locks Hansel in an iron cage in the garden and forces Gretel into becoming a slave. The witch feeds Hansel regularly to fatten him up, but Hansel cleverly sticks a bone he found in the cage (presumably a bone of its previous captive) and the witch feels it, thinking it to be his finger. Due to her blindness, she is fooled into thinking Hansel is still too thin to eat. After weeks of this, the witch grows impatient and decides to eat Hansel, “be he fat or lean.”

She prepares the oven for Hansel, but decides she is hungry enough to eat Gretel, too. She coaxes Gretel to the oven door and asks her to put her head in to see if the flames are high enough. Gretel, sensing the witch’s intent, lies that she does not understand what she means. Infuriated, the witch demonstrates, and Gretel instantly shoves the witch into the oven, slams and bolts the door and turns the heat up, burning the witch alive. She frees Hansel from the cage and the pair discover a vast treasure chest filled with jewels, gold, and diamonds. Packing the jewels into knapsacks, the children find their way home to their father. His wife has mysteriously died. The father has spent all his days lamenting the loss of his children, and is delighted to see them safe and sound, and with the witch’s wealth, they live happily ever after.
Sorry, if too long!