μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Selling by trickery: literal bargain. (Cf. K134.1.)

Deceptions. · Deceptive bargains. · Deception through pseudo-simple bargain. · view the constellation · filed as K196

Within the index

Filed under Deception through pseudo-simple bargain.

3 finer motifs beneath it
Buying foxes "as they run". Man sells three hundred foxes to buyer who agrees to "take them as they run": reds, silvers, crosses. He gets a large payment to bind the bargain, waves his hand at the woods: "I sold them as they run; and they're running." The tall hog. Man boasts of hog so big that a man could not reach its back if he holds his hand as high as possible. A stranger buys the hog, sight-unseen. The seller takes him to the hog, shows the buyer that the hog's back is much below his hand when he holds it as high as possible Trickster lends bamboo on condition that it is returned exactly as it is
Filed beside it
Deceptive partnership between man and ogre Deceptive division of profits Anger bargain. The trickster makes a bargain with his master that the first to become angry must submit to punishment. He thereupon heaps abuses on his master till the latter breaks out in anger and must take his punishment Deceptive bargain: as much bread as he wants to eat. The baker fixes his price at the rate for twenty loaves. The trickster eats thirty Deceptive bargain: a sack of corn as reward. Trickster has an enormous sack made Deceptive bargain: three wishes. The ogre is to fulfill three wishes of the peasant. The latter wishes for all the tobacco and brandy in the world and then some more brandy in addition. The devil must admit failure Deceptive bargain: first to say "Good morning." The first to give the greeting shall have the disputed property. The trickster is early on the scene and witnesses the other's adultery. He may keep the property without saying good morning Deceptive bargain: fasting together. The servant girl eats secretly; the miser starves Deceptive bargain: felling the tree. The ogre and the trickster agree to fell a large tree. The trickster purposely dulls his axe on a stone and then asks the ogre to exchange. Rather than work with a dull axe, the ogre does all the work Deceptive bargain: a peck of grain for each stack. The man who is to receive this share of the crop makes very small stacks Deceptive bargain: an ox for five pennies. A woman who has been left the ox on condition that she give the proceeds to the poor offers it for five pennies, but it must be bought along with a cock at twelve florins. She gives the five pennies to the poor and keeps the twelve florins Deceptive bargain: the ogre and the copper coins. Every time the copper coin is paid out, the ogre must make a new one. The man buys an extensive property and pays with a large number of copper coins. He threatens to buy another and the ogre goes back on his contract Deceptive land purchase. (Dido.) Deceptive bargain with ogre: buying trees. Trees to be neither straight nor crooked Strokes shared. The boy promises the soldier what the king has promised to give him. The soldier receives a beating in place of the boy Stealing only a small amount. A man promises in confession to steal only a small amount. He steals a rope with a mare on the end of it
Travels with (Thompson’s cf.)
Horse which will not go over trees. Salesman tells buyer that he is selling the horse because it eats too much and will not climb trees. On the way home the horse bites everyone and refuses to cross a bridge. Seller is literally correct

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