There may be three donors, distinguished by the fact that the first two are unable to help and so send him on to the next. A common motif, as in "Farmer Weathersky", is that one can consult all the beasts, the next all the fish, the third all the birds, and only the last can discover what the hero needs. In other cases, each of the three may give the hero or heroine something, but only the third has the information necessary to them.