Shaja was so changed that her aunt and cousin did not recognize her either.  And Shaja was careful to rush home as soon as she saw her aunt motion to Bobu that it was time to go.  She ran so fast that she lost one of her red shoes, but she did not have time to return for it.  She reached the house before her aunt and her cousin, but the old woman was nowhere to be seen.  However, the wheat and oats were carefully separated on the table.

A hunter called Bulto found the red shoe in the forest and wanted to make the girl who had worn it his bride.  He was determined to find her so he could ask her to marry him.  One day he came to the house at the foot of the mountains. “I have come to find the owner of this shoe,” he said. “I would like to make her my wife, if no other has spoken for her.”

The aunt thought the young man would make a wonderful husband for her Bobu.  She took the shoe and tried to force it on her daughter’s foot, but it would not fit.  So she threw the shoe back to the hunter and told him, “This is not the shoe that my daughter lost.  Go seek its owner in the village.”  As the hunter was about to take his leave, he saw Shaja and asked the aunt if that young maiden had perhaps lost the shoe.

The aunt looked at Shaja threateningly and asked. “Have you even worn such shoes?”

“Yes, I have,” she answered. “I have worn them and lost one, and that is the one.”

“If that is so,” said the aunt, “then where is the other one?”

“Here,” said Shaja as she took the other shoe from its hiding place in her apron.  The two shoes matched, and when she put them on, they fit perfectly, not too long and not too short.

Shaja saw the way her aunt looked at her, angrily and enviously, and she knew that it would be very bad for her to continue living in the house at the foot of the mountains.  She decided then and there to leave with the hunter Bulto.  They married and had a wonderful a child and lived in peace and happiness.  But one summer day, Shaja’s aunt and Bobu came to visit.

“Where is your husband?” asked the aunt, feigning politeness.