The tale is so widespread in the Indonesian archipelago that almost every Indonesian child grows up with some version of it. Bawang Putih (garlic, the kind sister) and Bawang Merah (shallot, the cruel sister) — the names themselves are pun-folkloric, the garlic and shallot being the two foundational alliums of Sundanese cooking. The cruelty of the shallot and the gentleness of the garlic, the story implies, are written into the kitchen itself.

The plot belongs to ATU 480 — the kind and unkind sisters — the same family as the German Frau Holle and the English Diamonds and Toads. What makes the Indonesian version distinctive is the specific magical agent: not a fairy, not a fountain, but a cucumber.

The story, briefly

Bawang Putih lives with her stepmother and stepsister Bawang Merah, who treat her cruelly. One day, while washing clothes in the river, she loses her late mother’s selendang (a long traditional cloth). She follows the river downstream, asking each creature she meets if they have seen it. She is courteous to each — the fish, the buffalo, the old woman at the riverbank — and each helps her in some small way.

Eventually she comes to an old woman’s house. The old woman has the selendang. She offers it back to Bawang Putih in exchange for help with three days of chores. Bawang Putih works gently and gratefully. On the third day the old woman gives her, in addition to the selendang, a choice between two cucumbers — a large one and a small one. Bawang Putih, being modest, takes the small one.

At home, when she cuts the small cucumber open, it is full of gold.

Bawang Merah, told about this, runs to the river, loses her own selendang on purpose, follows the same path, is rude to every creature, and demands the largest cucumber from the old woman. When she cuts hers open, it is full of venomous snakes.

What the cucumber is doing

The cucumber is, in folkloric terms, doing the work that a test does. The choice between small and large isn’t really about cucumbers. It’s about whether the heroine has internalized the gentleness her mother taught her enough to pick the small one spontaneously, without being told. Bawang Putih does. Bawang Merah, given the same explicit choice, picks the large because the rules of greed cannot be unlearned.

The Indonesian variant is unusual in giving the heroine an explicit choice (rather than a passive reward). The Western Cinderella receives the prince essentially as a recognition of inherent virtue. Bawang Putih chooses correctly because she is who she is. The agency is the moral.

For families

Strong tale for ages 5–8. Short enough for a single sitting (8–10 minutes read aloud), with a clear and satisfying resolution. The image of the cucumber-as-test is one of the most strangely memorable in international children’s literature — many adults who heard this tale at four are still able to tell it at forty.

Caveat: the snake-filled cucumber ending is graphic in some traditional retellings (Bawang Merah is killed by the snakes). The modern Indonesian children’s book versions soften this to “she runs away and is never seen again,” which works fine for younger children.

— Sources: Danandjaja, J., Folklor Indonesia, Grafiti, 1984; the standard Indonesian children’s-book edition is published by Erlangga (2008, ill. Iwan Yuswandi).