A man once had a donkey who had worked patiently for many long years carrying sacks to the mill, but now his strength was failing and he was less and less useful. So his master decided to get rid of him, but the donkey, realizing that something was wrong, ran away and set off for the town of Bremen, "I can always join the Bremen Town Brand" he thought.

When he had been walking along for a while, he met a hound lying by the roadside, panting as if he had run and run until he was worn out.
"Why are you panting like that, Biter?", asked the donkey. "Because I'm old" said the dog, "and I'm getting weaker every day. I can't go hunting anymore either. My master was going to kill me, and I ran away. But how am I to earn a living now?". "I tell you what," said the donkey. "I'm going to Bremen. I'm going to join the Bremen Town Band. Why don't you come with me, and you can join it too. I'll play the lute, and you can beat the drums." The dog thought that was a good idea, so they went on together.

Before long they met a cat, sitting by the roadside and looking as miserable as three days of wet weather.
"Well, what's the matter with you, Whiskers, old fellow?", asked the donkey. "It's no joke when people are out for your blood, let me tell you!" said the cat. "I'm getting old now, my teeth aren't so sharp, and I'd rather sit by the fire and sleep than chase mice, so my mistress was going to drown me. I got away just in time, but now I don't know what to do. Where am I to go?".
"Come to Bremen with us! You're used to singing serenades, so you can be a musician too."
The cat thought that was a good idea, and he went along with them.

Then the three fugitives passed a farmyard. There was the farm rooster, sitting on the gate, crowing for all he was worth.
"Your crowing goes right through me"; said the donkey. "What's up?"
"I was forecasting fine weather", said the rooster, "because it's a holiday. But there are people coming to dinner on Sunday, which is tomorrow, and the farmer's wife has told the cook she wants me in the soup. They're going to cut my head off this evening. So I'm crowing and crowing while I still can!".
"I tell you what, Redcomb," said the donkey, "why not come with us instead? We are going to Bremen. You'll find anywhere's better than being dead. You have a good voice, and if we make music together, it will be a fine noise!"
The rooster liked the donkey's suggestion, and all four of them went along together.

However, they couldn't reach the town of Bremen in one day, and that evening they came to a forest and decided to spend the night there. The donkey and the dog lay down under a big tree, the cat climbed into its branches, and the rooster flew to the very top, where he would be safest. Before going to sleep, though, he looked north, south, east and west, and he thought he saw a little spark burning in the distance. So he called down to his companions to tell them there must be a house not far off, because he could see a light shining. "Then we'd better get up and go there," said the donkey. "It's not very comfortable here!" and the dog agreed. A bone or so and a bit of meat, he said, would suit him nicely.

So they set off for the place where the light was. Soon they saw it shining brighter, and it grew larger and larger, and at last they came to a robber's house, brightly lit. The donkey, being the biggest, went up to the window and looked in. "What can you see, Greycoat?", asked the dog. "What can I see?" replied the donkey. "I can see a table covered with good things to eat and drink and robbers sitting at it making merry."
"We could certainly make good use of those things to eat and drink" said the rooster.
"Hee haw, I wish we were sitting there!" said the donkey.
Wondering how to chase the robbers out of the house, the animals talked it over, and at last they thought of a way. The donkey put his forefeet up on the windowsill, the dog climbed on the donkey's back, the cat climbed on the dog's back, and finally the rooster flew up and settled on the cat's head. When they were ready, a signal was given, and they all began making music together: the donkey brayed, the dog barked, the cat mewed, and the rooster crowed. Then they crashed through the window and into the room, to the sound of breaking glass. The robbers jumped up when they heard the frightful noise, thinking a ghost was coming in, and they ran out into the forest in terror.

So then the four companions sat down at the table, set to work on the food that was left, and they ate as if they weren't going to eat again for a month. When the four musicians had finished, they put out the light and looked for a place to sleep, each according to his nature and his notions of comfort. The donkey lay down on the dungheap, the dog lay down behind the door, the cat lay in the warm ashes on the hearth, and the rooster settled on the beam at the top of the ceiling. Since they were tired from their long journey, they soon fell asleep.

When it was past midnight, and the robbers, lurking in the distance, saw that there was no light in the house anymore, and all seemed quiet, the robber chief said, "We shouldn't have let ourselves be scared like that!" And he told one of his men to go and take a look at the house.

The robber found the house perfectly quiet. He went into the kitchen to get a light, and thinking that the cat's glowing, fiery eyes were live coals, he touched a candle to them, thinking it would catch fire. But the cat was not amused, and leaped for his face, hissing and scratching. The terrified robber ran for it, and tried to get out of the back door. However, the dog was lying there, and jumped up and bit his leg. And as he ran across the yard and past the dungheap the donkey gave him a good kick with his hind leg. As for the rooster, roused from his sleep by all this noise and wide awake now, he sat on his beam and crowed, "Cock-a-doodle-do!". Then the robber ran for his life, back to the robber chief and told him, "Oh, there's a terrible old witch in our house. She spat at me and scratched my face with her long fingers. And there's a man behind the door with a knife, and he stabbed me in the leg. And there's a black monster in the yard who hit me with a wooden club. And the judge himself is sitting up in the rafters, and he called, 'Cut the rogue in two!' So I ran for it!"

The robbers never dared go back to their house again. But the four Bremen Town Musicians liked it there so much that they never wanted to leave. In fact, they liked it better every day, and they all lived happily together in their house for a long, long time.