The title of the play indicates that it is a rewriting of an old story, adapted by the author to the "Kasperl theatre", the string puppet theatre. La pièce reprend sur un ton tantôt burlesque, tantôt inspiré de la dévotion populaire si prégnante dans la région dite des Sudètes (le nord de la Bohême, majoritairement germanophone et catholique), non seulement une légende rapportée par le compilateur de contes et écrivain romantique Ludwig Bechstein (1801-1860), mais aussi des motifs du théâtre de marionnettes traditionnel de l'espace sud-allemand et autrichien. On y voit le héros triompher de la mort et du diable, mais incapable en revanche de liquider définitivement sa femme, comme c'était le cas par exemple dans le cycle de pièces pour théâtre de Kasperl publié par le dessinateur Carl Reinhardt dans les Münchener Bilderbogen. Quant à l'épisode où Kasperl abat sa femme d'un coup de pistolet, puis assassine l'agent de police qui l'a pris sur le fait, et cherche à se débarrasser des corps qu'il a enfermés dans une boîte, il correspond très exactement au scénario que rapporte l'écrivain viennois Felix Salten d'une de ses visites au Prater, où on donnait des spectacles de marionnettes à gaine sans parole. Franz August Rokos précise pour sa part que la pièce peut être jouée soit avec des marionnettes à gaine, soit avec des marionnettes à fils (vraisemblablement des marionnettes à fils et tringle comme on continuait d'en utiliser dans les pays tchèques).

Saint Peter comes down to earth to grant three people of his choice the fulfillment of three wishes each. The first, a blacksmith, wishes that anyone who climbs into his pear tree to steal his pears can no longer come down without his permission, that people can only enter his house to disturb him through the keyhole, and that his bag fills with everything he wants to have in it. Peterle, the young boy who assists him at the forge, wishes to see his parents again in paradise, to have health, and to always be in a cheerful mood. Kasperl, in turn, goes to see Saint Peter and obtains that three wishes be granted to him, but asks to consult with his wife Gretl beforehand. However, they are unable
to agree. Gretl finally blurts out that she would like sausages, which immediately appear on the table. Out of spite, Kasperl wishes that the sausages hang from his nose, but then he can't get them off, tries to shoot them off with a pistol, and accidentally kills his wife. A policeman arrives, whom he murders by suffocating him in the box where the policeman discovered Gretl's body. When he is about to throw the boxinto the water, the devil emerges, resurrects his wife, and beats him up. Now it is the blacksmith's time to die. Death, with a nail through his skull, comes to see him. The blacksmith asks him to pick a pear for him before following him. Death climbs into the tree and cannot come
down until he has promised the blacksmith never to come back to see him again. However, he touches young Peterle, who had laughed at seeing him in such an awkward position, and he enters paradise. Then Death sends
the devil to torment the blacksmith, but the latter, in the company of Kasperl, catches him in a bag as he passes through the keyhole and giveshim a severe beating. To avenge the devil, Death waits for Kasperl outside, but he manages to nail his skull to a tree and only releases him on the condition that he leaves him alone from now on too. After theFirst World War, however, neither the blacksmith nor Kasperl have any more taste for life. However, they are refused entry to both Heaven and Hell. The blacksmith then throws his bag over the wall of paradise and wishes to be there himself: he thus deceives Saint Peter. Kasperl has one last wish: he asks for theresurrection of the policeman, so as not to have his death on his conscience any longer. Entry to paradise is finally granted to him, but after a few years of purgatory: he will haveto return to his wife.