Once upon a time, there was a sweet little girl who always wore a red hooded cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Red Riding Hood. One day, her mother asked her to take a basket of food to her sick grandmother, who lived deep in the forest.
"Remember," her mother warned gently, "stay on the path, and do not talk to strangers." Little Red Riding Hood promised she would be careful, and set off happily through the woods.
Along the way, a sly wolf appeared from behind the trees and asked sweetly where she was going. Forgetting her mother's warning entirely, she told him all about her grandmother's cottage deep in the woods.
The clever wolf raced ahead through a hidden shortcut, reached the grandmother's cottage first, and gobbled her up whole! Then he put on her nightgown and cap and climbed into her bed, waiting quietly for Little Red Riding Hood to arrive.
When she finally arrived and stepped inside, she noticed something odd about her grandmother. "Grandmother, what big eyes you have!" she said. "All the better to see you with, my dear," replied the wolf in a strange, gruff voice. "What big ears you have!" "All the better to hear you with!"
"What big teeth you have!" she exclaimed, now feeling quite nervous. "All the better to eat you with!" roared the wolf, suddenly leaping out from under the blankets!
Little Red Riding Hood screamed loudly in fright, and a woodcutter working nearby heard her cries and rushed inside just in the nick of time. He chased the wolf far away and helped free her grandmother, who had been hiding safely inside a closet all along.
From that day forward, Little Red Riding Hood always remembered her mother's wise advice, and never once spoke to strangers in the woods again.