Young Peter, who lives somewhere in Bulgaria, is poor but light-hearted and sharp-witted. Peter hires himself out as a farmhand to the village priest, Father Stavros. On St George's Day, Peter twice makes a laughing-stock of local rich man Stamo in the eyes of the entire village. The priest and Stamo decide to get their revenge and rummage about among the old ledgers until they find out that Peter's grandfather incurred some debt a long time ago; with interest, the sum due has since trebled. To pay up, Peter must forfeit his dilapidated house and his donkey to the rich man. As he refuses to go along, the local notables drive him out of the village. The jolly farmhand takes his leave of the rich man's daughter and takes to the road to look for Justice. Peter signs up as a farmhand at an ancient Greek monastery. He soon realizes that the monk's piety is only skin-deep. One night when the abbot Kalistrat is indulging in debauchery in his richly-appointed cell, The Devil appears in the window. He ordered the abbot, who is half-dead with fear, to put some food in a basket and to take it in the garden. Soon after that, Peter throws a party for the monastery farmhands. The next day, they bid him goodbye, calling him for the first time Sly Peter. Peter once again sets on his journey, seeking Justice. On a stormy nigh he arrives at the inn run by Hadzi Kostaki, a hunch-backed skinflint and usurer. Peter manages to outwit the usurer and restore the money he had wrongfully taken from his pretty maidservant Kalinka and the rest of his domestics. In a small inn, he meets Nastradin Hodzha, a wise, quick-witted old man. While Peter is traveling everywhere, the victims of his tricks write a malicious report against him to Hasan Pasha, the Governor. Peter contrives to replace the denunciation by an entirely different message. The substituted parchment orders that all male factors be given fifty lashes each. Having belatedly found out the con, the Governor wants Peter's head. Peter, however, invariably escapes detention, as hundred of ordinary people love him, so he can keep bringing them joy and keeping up their hope of the ultimate triumph of Justice.