A shabby girl begged for a hare to feed for guests; finally, Jesper agreed to give her one in return for a kiss, but then he whistled it back.

A fat old man in a royal groom's livery came, and Jesper agreed to give him one if he stood on his head, and then whistled it back.

[12] Swedish scholar Waldemar Liungmann [sv] located variants across Romance-, Germanic-, Slavic-, Baltic- and Finno-Ugrian speaking areas.

[13] This geographic distribution seems to confirm professor Stith Thompson's analysis that the tale "is essentially European", instead of having an Eastern origin.

[19][20][21] For instance, folklorist Elsie Clews Parsons noted that the informant of a South Carolina variant omitted the details about the sexual encounter between the male protagonist and the women, which were referenced in the Cape Verde tales.

[22] William Bernard McCarthy, in the same vein, cited that a storyteller knew of two versions of the tale, one for general audiences and other for a male public.

[23] Benjamin Thorpe translated a Danish version with the title Temptations, where a poor cottager's son employs himself under a master who knows the black arts.

[26] Illustrator Katherine Pyle published a story titled The Magic Pipe: A Norse Tale, where the hero's name is translated as Boots, who wants to offer his services to king to herd the royal hares.

[30] A version was collected by Peter Asbjornsen in the original Norwegian, named Gjæte Kongens Harer,[31] and later translated as The King's Hares.

[38] In a variant whose source was pointed as Lithuanian, One Hundred Hares, three brothers try to win the hand of the princess and meet a beggar on the way.

[42] The tale type is known in Poland as Głupie pasie zające ("The Fool Who Herded Hares"), in the Polish Folktale Catalogue by Julian Krzyżanowski.

[43] Polish ethnographer Stanisław Ciszewski (pl) collected two variants, one from Narama and another from Szczodrkowice, grouped under the banner O parobku, co upasł królewskie zające i nagadał pełny worek gadek ("About the farmer, who fattened the royal hares and filled a sack with a bunch of lies").

[44] In another Polish variant, "Пастух, который тысячу зайцев пас" ("The Youth that Herded a Thousand Hares"), "in the time of the Tartarian invasions", Vsemil makes his way through the Carpathan Mountains, and meets an old man in the woods.

[45] Roger Pinon listed three dialectal variants (L'chuflot insôrcèlè, El chuflot d'saule and a manuscript one), two from Lièges and the other from Soignies.

[46] Ludwig Bechstein collected a German variant titled Der Hasenhüter und die Königstochter [de][47] or The Hare-Keeper,[48] where an old man gives the shepherd a reed to herd the hares.

[53] In a Central European tale collected by Theodor Vernaleken (Piping Hans), the princess throws a potato to a crowd of potential suitors.

[54] Vernaleken also pointed the existence of an Austrian variant from Haugsdorf where there is the same task of rabbit herding, but with a specific amount of 700 (seven hundred) hares.

[55] Swiss fairy tale Der Figesack ("The sack of figs"), collected by Otto Sutermeister,[56] was pointed by author Adeline Rittershaus as a close parallel to Norwegian The King's Hares.

Von Hahn suggested that the number of hares may be related to a mythical German character named "Frau Harke".

[60] The motif of herding the hares also happens as an episode of the Bosnian fairy tale Die Pferde der Wilen: it begins with the youngest of three brothers standing guard in a meadow and capturing three magical horses (akin to ATU 530, "The Princess on the Glass Mountain") and continues with the king setting the task of building a golden ship that navigates on land and water (ATU 513).

[62] Aurelio Macedonio Espinosa collected two variants titled El acertajo from Toledo and Granada, and Juan Soldao y la Princesa, from Retortillo, Soria.

[66] According to Portuguese scholars Isabel Cárdigos and Paulo Jorge Correia, tale type ATU 570, O Pastor de Coelhos ("The Rabbit-Herd"), is also present in Portuguese-speaking countries, like Portugal, Brazil and Cape Verde.

[67][68] In a Portuguese variant, Os figos verdes (English: "The Green Figs"), the Virgin Mary gives the foolish hero a harmonica, with which he can command the king's hares.

[69] In a variant titled Az három aranygyűrű ("The three rings"), a maltreated prince receives aid from a bearded man, who gives him a whistle to herd the king's 100 geese.

[72] Hungarian writer Elek Benedek recorded a variant from his country, titled A király nyulai ("The King's Hares").

On their way, they meet a little mouse that asks for food; the elder ones refuse to give, but the youngest shares his meal with the petit animal and receives a magic whistle.

[76] Scholar Francis Hindes Groome published a Welsh-Gypsy tale titled The Ten Rabbits (Romani: I Shuvali Râni): an old woman lives with her three sons.

[81][82] An Azorian variant, Fresh Figs, was collected by Elsie Spicer Eells: a rich man promises his daughter for anyone who can cure her (ATU 610, "The Healing Fruits").

In the second, the protagonist offers a riddle to the princess, who cannot solve it; her father, the king, sends the youth to fatten his three hares by the end of thirty days.