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The town of Hamelin is literally swarming with rats, who, when they can't grab food out in the open, use bricks to break into grocery stores and delicatessens. To rid themselves of the pesky rodents, the townsfolk demand that their singing Mayor hire an exterminator. Enter the Pied Piper, who after being promised a bag of gold uses his three-toned flute to drive the rats out of town. But once the little pests have danced off to parts unknown, the Mayor reneges on his promise and refuses to pay the Piper. Upset at the bad example set by the adults of Hamelin, the Piper uses his flute to lure all of the children out of town, never to return--a fate that, in this Disneyfied version of the famous Robert Browning poem, isn't such a terrible one after all. In the reissue prints of The Pied Piper, a somewhat superfluous written moral ("Always Keep Your Word") is tacked onto the final scene.