In 1852 Carl Reinhardt published a series of pieces for Kasperl to accompany the illustrated plates he was publishing in the Münchner Bilderbogen. The text, of uncertain attribution, thus serves primarily as a caption for a graphic work that made Reinhardt the father of the comic strip in Germany, and was certainly not intended to be performed on stage. Nevertheless, these short sketches reproduce typical scenes and routines from the puppet repertoire of the time. The household scene between Kasperl and his wife (who becomes Gretl in Franz von Pocci's play) is a comic situation that provides the subject of countless "Kasperl plays" and is an important step in the character's development from a valet figure to a representative of the petty bourgeoisie.

Mrs Kasperl comes to ask her husband for money when Kasperl finds a cook to whom he has promised to marry her and who has just brought him a sausage and some wine. The two women argue with Kasperl and start fighting. Kasperl knocks them both out and locks them in a chest. Alerted by the noise, the night watchman comes to question him. Kasperl explains to him that the two women had a quarrel over some plums inside the chest, offers some to the watchman and closes the lid on the unfortunate man who has put his head in it. Then he leaves, announcing that he will throw the chest into the water...