The Crock of Gold (Celtic, Irish)

Meehawl MacMurrachu's old skinny cat kills a robin redbreast on the roof one day, forging the first link in a long, peculiar chain of events. For the robin redbreast is the particular bird of the Leprecauns of Gort na Gloca Mora, and the Leprecauns retaliate by stealing Meehawl MacMurrachu's wife's washing-board, and Meehawl asks the Philosopher who lives in the center of the pine wood called Coilla Doraca for advice in locating the washboard...and the chain leads on and on, up to Angus Og himself and to the country of the gods. Unique and inimitable, this is one of the great tales of our century.