μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

The sheep's teeth. Two thieves caught with stolen sheep. One says that he told the other than sheep have lower teeth but no upper, and that they caught the sheep to see.

The wise and the foolish. · Cleverness. · Clever verbal retorts (repartee). · Retorts concerning thefts. · view the constellation · filed as J1391.3

Filed across the traditions
  • India Thompson-Balys
  • Africa (Vai) Ellis 221 No. 34.
Within the index

Filed under Thief makes a lame excuse.

1 finer motif beneath it
Bitten by the sheep. Man caught just as he knocks sheep in the head: The sheep bit me (or: I'm not going to let sheep butt me to death)
Filed beside it
Thief's excuse: the big wind. Vegetable thief is caught in a garden. Owner: How did you get into the garden? A wind blew me in. How were the vegetables uprooted? If the wind is strong enough to blow me in, it can uproot them. How did they get into your bag? That is what I was just wondering The ladder market. A thief climbs over a wall by means of his ladder. When caught in the garden he says that he is a seller of ladders. Owner: "Is this a ladder market?" "Can't one sell ladders everywhere?" How he would act if he were a hawk. A hawk steals a piece of liver from a trickster and flies away with it. The trickster likewise steals some liver from another man and escapes to a high place with it. He says that he is seeing how he would act if he were a hawk Fox pretends that he has been to the farmyard only to see if any of his kindred were there Lame excuse: one cannot drink because he has no teeth Were merely measuring cup. King demands that each subject bring small amount of milk to put in his new cup. They plan to cheat him by bringing him water. Accused, they say that they were merely measuring the cup to see how much it would take to fill it Needles and anchors. Fox leaving merchant's warehouse: "I had wanted a needle as big as an anchor and an anchor as small as a needle."

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