In China there once lived a father, his four sons, and three daughters-in-law.  His three older sons had married within a few months of each other and all with young women from the same village.  Recently these three new daughters-in-law had been brought into the house. Their new father-in-law's wife had died a few years before, and having no mother-in-law with them in their new home, and being lonesome and homesick for their former families, they constantly asked the old man for permission to visit their former village.  For you see, those were the days when young women, after they married and moved into the homes of their new husbands, needed permission to leave the household. 

Annoyed by the continual pleas of his three new daughters-in-law, the old father thought of a way to put an end to it.  He gave the young women permission in this way, saying, "You are always begging me to allow you to go and visit your mothers', and you think I am very hard-hearted for not letting you go. Now you may go, but only upon this condition.  When you come back, you must each bring me something that I want. One of you must bring me some fire in paper, the other must bring me some wind in paper, and the third music bring me some music in wind. Unless you promise to bring me this, you are never to ask me to let you go home.  And if you go and fail to get these for me, you are never to come back."

The old man did not suppose that these conditions would be accepted.  Of course they were hard to understand, much less to fulfill.  But the girls were young and thoughtless, and in their anxiety to get away did not consider any of that. So they promised and made ready with speed.  In great glee, they started off on foot to visit their mothers.

After they had walked a long distance, chatting about what they should do and whom they should see in their native village, a heel of one of their shoes came loose and fell off. They all stopped to fix her footgear, and in that pause they remembered what they had promised their father-in-law.  At once, they all began to despair as they had no idea what the strange requests really were, much less how to fulfill them.

While they sat wailing by the roadside, a wise young girl came riding along on a water buffalo. She stopped and asked them what was the matter, and if she could help. They told her she could do them no good, no one could.  But she persisted in offering her sympathy and inviting their confidence, till at last they told her their story.

The wise young girl on the water buffalo said that if they would go home with her, she would show them a way out of their trouble. Their case seemed so hopeless, and the girl on the water buffalo seemed so sure of her own power to help, that they followed the rider of the water buffalo back to her home. And there, she showed them how to comply with their father-in-law's demands.

How can the first daughter-in-law bring back fire wrapped in paper?
 How can the second daughter-in-law bring back wind in a paper?
 How can the third daughter-in-law bring back music in wind?