μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

The iron-eating mice. Trustee claims that mice have eaten the iron scales confided to him. The host abducts the trustee's son and says that a falcon has carried him off.

The wise and the foolish. · Cleverness. · Clever practical retorts. · One absurdity rebukes another. · view the constellation · filed as J1531.2

Filed across the traditions
  • Spanish Exempla Keller
  • Italian Novella *Rotunda
  • India *Thompson-Balys, Penzer III 250, V 62, *64
  • Indonesian DeVries's list No. 299.
  • general *BP II 372
  • general Chauvin II 92 No. 37
  • general Bødker Exempler
Within the index

Filed under Borrower's absurdities.

1 finer motif beneath it
The dog-eating bugs. Man keeps dog for boy, tells him when he comes for it that the chinch bugs have eaten it. The boy borrows a mule from the man, later tells him that a buzzard has carried it away. He gets his dog back
Filed beside it
The transformed golden pumpkin. Borrower of golden pumpkin returns a brass pumpkin and claims that the gold has turned to brass. The lender takes the borrower's son and returns with an ape. He claims that the boy has turned into an ape The pot has a child and dies. A borrower returns a pot along with a small one saying that the pot has had a young one. The pots are accepted. He borrows the pot a second time and keeps it. He sends word that the pot has died
Travels with (Thompson’s cf.)
Lie: frog eats plowshare. (Cf. J1531.2.)
Carried in tale types

ask the rhapsode about this motif · search the shelf for “iron-eating” · wander