Thief makes a lame excuse.
The wise and the foolish. · Cleverness. · Clever verbal retorts (repartee). · Retorts concerning thefts. · view the constellation · filed as J1391
Motif
Filed across the traditions
- India Thompson-Balys
- Indonesian Coster-Wijsman Uilspiegel Verhalen 35ff. Nos. 17–22.
Within the index
Filed under Retorts concerning thefts.
8 finer motifs beneath 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?" 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 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."
Filed beside it
Owner assists thief The double fool. A numskull caught changing meal from others' sacks into his own. Miller asks him what he is doing. "I am a fool." "Why then don't you put your meal into their sacks?" "I am only a simple fool. If I did that I should be a double fool." Thieves' nocturnal habits Was going to give it to him any way. Thus a hunter answers a thief who steals his hare Removing chance for worry. A king noticing that a student has stolen a capon, asks, "Does not the Bible say that you should not worry about tomorrow?" "Exactly. I was trying to remove all chance of worry tomorrow." The cost price recovered. A man takes a shirt to market for a friend who has stolen it. At market it is stolen from the seller. He tells his friend that the market was bad and that he was able to get back only the cost price (nothing) Compliments from the hangman. A man complimented a hangman on the good job he had done in hanging a thief. The hangman takes off his hat: "One thief I hang, to the other I take off my hat." Retorts concerning thefts – miscellaneous
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