"Jack and the Beanstalk" is an English fairy tale with ancient origins. It appeared as "The Story of Jack Spriggins and the Enchanted Bean" in 1734 and as Benjamin Tabart's moralized "The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk" in 1807. Henry Cole, publishing under pen name Felix Summerly, popularized the tale in The Home Treasury (1845), and Joseph Jacobs rewrote it in English Fairy Tales (1890). Jacobs' version is most commonly reprinted today, and is believed to be closer to the oral versions than Tabart's because it lacks the moralizing. The antagonist is an ogre in some versions, including Jacob's, and is a giant in others.

"Jack and the Beanstalk" is the best known of the "Jack tales", a series of stories featuring the archetypal English hero and stock character Jack.

According to researchers at Durham University and Universidade Nova de Lisboa, the story originated more than five millennia ago in Proto-Indo-European, based on a widespread archaic story form which is now classified by folklorists as ATU 328 The Boy Who Stole Ogre's Treasure.

Jack, a poor country boy, trades the family cow for a handful of magic beans, much to the dismay of his widowed mother. The beans grow into a massive beanstalk reaching up into the clouds. Jack climbs the beanstalk and finds a road that leads to a big house, with a tall woman standing outside. He asks for breakfast and she gives him some bread, cheese, and milk, but warns that he might become breakfast himself if he is not careful, since "My man is an ogre and there's nothing he likes better than boys broiled on toast." While he is eating, the ogre comes home, with the woman telling Jack to quickly hide in the oven.

Sensing the boy's presence, the ogre cries, "Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I'll have his bones to grind my bread!" The wife suggests that he is smelling "the scraps of the little boy you liked so much for yesterday's dinner". So the ogre eats his breakfast, three broiled calves. Afterwards he takes out some bags of gold. Counting the gold, he falls asleep. Jack creeps out of his hiding place, takes one of the bags, and climbs down the beanstalk. He gives the gold to his mother, who is very happy. They live well for some time, until it is almost used up.

Jack decides to try his luck once more and climbs up the beanstalk. Again he meets the woman at the doorstep and asks her for breakfast. While he is eating, the ogre returns and Jack quickly hides in the oven. Again the ogre suspects that somebody is there, but then sits down for his breakfast – three broiled oxen. Afterwards he asks his wife for "the hen that lays the golden eggs". He says "Lay!" and the hen lays an egg of pure gold. The ogre falls asleep, and Jack takes the hen and climbs down the beanstalk.

Though Jack and his mother now have an inexhaustible source of golden eggs, Jack is "not content" and climbs the beanstalk for the third time. He avoids the ogre's wife, slipping into the house unseen when she goes to get some water, and hiding in the copper. When the ogre comes home, he once more cries out "Fee-fi-fo-fum", suspecting someone is there. His wife suggests that the "little rogue that stole your gold and the hen" may be hiding in the oven. But when they find the oven empty, she concludes he is smelling the boy she has just broiled for his breakfast. The ogre eats his breakfast, then asks his wife to bring him his golden harp, which sings beautifully when he orders it to "Sing!"

Once the ogre has fallen asleep, Jack takes the harp and wants to leave, but the harp calls out "Master! Master!" The ogre wakes up, seeing Jack running away. Pursued by the ogre, he quickly climbs down the beanstalk, then asks his mother to bring an axe. He chops down the beanstalk and the ogre falls to his death. Jack and his mother are now very rich and live happily ever after, with Jack marrying a princess.