The constellation
K265 The fee used up before the main question is reached. A man with an unsolved question seeks the help of a wit. The latter refuses to answer unless paid. He takes small fees for each easy question leading up to the principal question. Before reaching that point the fee is exhausted, and the question remains unanswered
A constellation is one motif’s neighborhood in the record — the story-shapes filed around it, the tale types that carry it, and the texts where it is witnessed, every line a receipted link. Click a motif to travel. Click a text to read it. The entry · wander
● motif
● tale type
● on the shelf
● attested
The same sky, in words
filed under
- Other deceptive bargains · K250 entry
filed beside
- Deceptive damage claims · K251 entry
- Selling oneself and escaping · K252 entry
- Profitable league made with both parties to a quarrel · K253 entry
- Goods misappropriated · K254 entry
- Exorbitant price demanded and received · K255 entry
- Deceptive wages · K256 entry
- Stolen property sold to its owner · K258 entry
- The price of a lump of gold. A trickster asks a goldsmith what he would pay for a lump of gold of a certain size. Believing that the man has such a lump, the goldsmith pays him a large sum · K261 entry
- The priest made sick of his bargain: three words at the grave. A poor man in return for a steer gets permission from the priest to speak three words at the burial of his enemy, the rich man. Priest: "From earth are you come." Man: "Now the steer is dead." Priest: "In earth shall you remain." Man: "Father, do you want the meat?" Priest: "I wish you were in hell!" etc · K262 entry
- Agreement not to scratch. In talking the trickster makes gestures and scratches without detection · K263 entry