[1] One day, the king announces his new marriage to the cook's daughter, and has a puzzle for his guests: to count the nuts from two big bowls.

[5][6] In a Moravian variant collected by Beneš Method Kulda [cs] and Jan Soukop with the title Princ se zlatým křížem na čele ("The Prince with a golden cross on the forehead"), a poor mother has three young daughters, the youngest sister always promising to give birth to children with a golden cross on the forehead.

St. Anna appears to the sons and convinces the eldest to go to his father's castle and count the nuts in front of the king.

[7] In a Polish tale collected around Zamość and Krasnystaw and published in scholar publication ''Wisła'' [pl] with the title Synek ze złotą główką ("A Son with a Golden Head"), three sisters comment among themselves what they would do if each one married the king, and the youngest says she will give birth to a son with a golden head.

The sisters order the sheep to be killed for the feast at the ball and its innards to be eaten by the forsaken queen, in her house.

The servant finds the three sisters and overhears their conversation: the youngest promises to give birth to the king's son with the moon on the forehead and a star on the back.

[11] In a Belarussian tale titled "Два у кораб арэшкі" ("Two Nuts in a Ship"), three daughters of a couple go to a banya.

The false orders are carried out, and the disgraced queen, with her twins, has to beg for alms for a living, and hides her sons' astral birthmarks with caps.

After some five or six years, the queen takes the children to a lake, intending to drown them, but the boys plead that they can still return to their father.

Later, the king sends for a large boat containing nuts inside, and promises to give half of the kingdom to whoever solves the riddle.

[13] In a Belarussian tale titled "Тры дачкі" ("Three Daughters"), three sisters are walking near a rye field, when they talk among themselves: the eldest promises to give good rye to her husband, the middle one good wheat, and the third promises to bear a son with stars on his temples, the Moon on the front, the Sun on the back of the neck, his hands of gold and legs of silver.

At the ceremony, the man places a container full of nuts and promises to give his entire estate to whoever counts them.

The boy begins to count the nuts two by two, all the while interweaving the story of how his parents met, then shows his father his astral birthmarks and metal-coated body parts, thus proving his parentage.

[16] This tale was sourced as South Slavic and translated as Die Frau eines Königs gebar drei goldhaarige Söhne ("A King's wife gave birth to three golden-haired sons"), given in abridged form in the Archiv für slavische Philologie.

[18] However, 140 variants in Lithuania contain the character (the mother or one of her sons) counting nuts in front of the king while singing a song about their family story.

[19] In a Lithuanian tale translated by author Stepas Zobarskas [lt] as Two Nuts and Two Barrels, three sisters are washing their clothes by the edge of a lake.

They begin to talk among themselves, and the youngest promises to give birth to a boy with the sun on the front, a moon on the top of his head, and stars in his ears.

The boy goes to the king's court and begins to count the nuts while interlacing a rhyme about the story of his mother and her sisters.

[21][22] In a Latvian tale translated into German language as Der Wundersohn ("The Wonder Son"), three girls are picking flax.

He enters the king's castle and begins to count the nuts from a drawer, all the while narrating the story of his father and mother.

One day, he has to go to war, and, while he is away, she gives birth to a son like she promised, and sends a raven as emissary to inform her husband.

The sons each go their separate ways in the world, and bring home a castle, a large orchard with many trees and a squirrel, and a golden sow with silver piglets.

This does not impede the king's son, however, and a beggar woman comes to explain the sights, but she asks for two boxes filled with nuts.

[25] In an Estonian tale titled Kuu kukla taga, Päev otsa ees ("The Moon on the Neck, the Sun on the forehead"), a king passes by three sisters sat on a window working with linen, and asks them what they will do if one of them becomes his wife: the elder promises to cover his army with a single fiber of linen.

the middle one that she can feed his army with a single bread; the youngest promises to bear him a son with the moon on the neck, the sun on the front and the morning star over his heart.

They creep into the castle and overhear that, after a period of mourning, the king is to marry again, but after one can count the pairs of nuts from a sheaf.

[26] In a Romanian tale titled The Twelve Young Boys With Golden Hair, a king rides on his carriage and passes by three sisters drawing hemp in the fields.

The messenger returns from the king and passes by the same two girls, who write an order for the queen to leave and take her children with her.

The queen tells them the whole story, gives them her ring, and the twelve boys go to their father's castle, donning caps to hide their hair.