Deceptions

3,871 motifs · page 5 of 20

• Thief claims to have been transformed into an ass. While the owner sleeps the thief steals his horse, hitches himself to the wagon, and claims that he is the horse transformed into a man. K403
• Thief escapes by leaving animal's severed tail and claiming that the animal has escaped and left his tail. K404
• Tails in ground. Thief steals animals and sticks severed tails into the ground, claiming that animals have escaped underground. K404.1
• Ox's tail in another's mouth. The thief kills one ox and puts the tail in another ox's mouth: the owner thinks one ox has eaten the other. K404.2
• Stolen sheep's tails severed and put in tree. Owner made to believe that they have escaped through the air. K404.3
• Thief successfully claims that stolen goods are his own. K405
• Grain-thief's wagon falls into ditch: duped owner helps him. The thief makes the owner believe that the grain belongs to the thief. K405.1
• The stolen pot pawned with the real owner. The thief gets a receipt from the owner and thus defends himself when accused of theft. K405.2
• Thief successfully claims that stolen image has been given him by the saint himself. K405.3
• Stolen animal disguised as person so that thief may escape detection. K406
• Stolen sheep dressed as person sitting at helm of boat. K406.1
• Stolen sheep dressed as baby in cradle, so that thief may escape detection. (Mak.) K406.2
• Stolen animal magically transformed so that thief may escape detection. K406.3
• Severed limb prevents detection. K407
• Thief has his companion cut off his head so that he may escape detection. K407.1
• Companion's arm allowed to be cut off so as to prevent detection. Thief has had his arm cut off as he enters a hole in a wall. He lets his companion also enter and have his severed. K407.2
• Thief's confederate cuts off own arm to furnish alibi for family's grief. (Previously he had severed father's or brother's head to escape detection.) K407.2.1
• Elephant cuts piece from own leg and puts it on shelf, lest he be accused of stealing meat. K407.3
• The stolen cow successively pawned. In one night a thief pawns a cow four times, always stealing it immediately and finally delivering it back to its owner. K408
• Thief presents alibi. Plays all night for dance while confederate commits actual theft. K411
• Thief shams illness as alibi. K411.1
• Detection of theft of bull escaped by putting boots on bull. K412
• Thieves stretch chain across road and evade pursuers. K413
• Quartered thief's body sewed together to escape detection. K414
• Marked culprit marks everyone else and escapes detection. K415
• Many persons admit theft so that it is impossible to find real thief. K415.1
• Repentant thief pretends to have found stolen cow. Upbraids owner for not guarding her better. K416
• Thief pretends to have recovered stolen horse. Returns it to owner after using it all he desires. K416.1
• Thief swallows stolen goods to escape detection. K417
• Flower thief eats flowers to escape detection. K417.1
• The owner is duped by thief who gives him the task of solving a riddle about the theft just accomplished. K418
• Thief escapes detection – miscellaneous. K419
• Thief cannot remember whom he delivered the goods to. Though he has eaten the food trusted to him, he claims to have delivered it, but cannot remember the person who opened the door. K419.1
• Thief avoids detection by disguising as a woman. K419.2
• Umpire awards his own stolen coat to thief. K419.3
• Stolen bacon offered to the owner. Making off with bacon, thief accidentally enters farmer's living-room. Boldly says: "Master, the devil from hell sends you bacon." The farmer: "Take yourself off to hell with the bacon." K419.4
• Thief paints horse black on one side and leaves other side white. Hoodwinked guardians make conflicting report of theft. K419.5
• Husks replaced in granary so theft of grain is unnoticed. K419.6
• Goldsmith as thief in king's treasury. Makes golden human figure and says it is a corpse. Gets by guards. K419.7
• Thieves escape detection by carrying woman on bier and drowning her outcries with wailing. K419.8
• Blame for theft fastened on inanimate objects. K419.9
• Blame for theft fastened on fairies. K419.10
• Thief loses his goods or is detected. K420
• Robber mistakenly carries off worthless goods and leaves valuable. K421
• Thief hoping to gain bigger booty, loses smaller. K421.1
• Thieves directed to a hornet's nest as supposed money hiding place. K421.2
• Two cheats exchange articles as genuine and both find themselves cheated. (Cf. K306.) K421.3
• Thief rendered helpless by magic. K422
• Stolen object magically returns to owner. K423
• Stolen animal returns to owner. K423.0.1
• Thief condemned when witnesses of theft are able to find the stolen goods. K424
• King's daughter put into brothel to catch thief. K425
• Apparently dead woman revives when thief tries to steal from her grave. K426
• Clever animal betrays thief. K427
• Clever animal betrays thief. Horse catches arm of thief and holds on until help comes. K427.1
• Magic statue betrays a thief by indirection. He has threatened to smash the head of the magic statue if it betrays him. The statue says, "Whoever would tell the truth now is likely to have his head smashed." K428
• Mouse's tail in mouth of sleeping thief causes him to cough up swallowed magic ring. K431
• Person being robbed deceives robbers and calls help. (Cf. K551.5.) K432
• Clever woman being robbed makes excuse for screaming and summoning help. K432.1
• Clever husband being robbed induces wife to make outcry and summon help. K432.1.1
• Owner pretends to help burglars to divide booty: handles weights so loudly that police are summoned. K432.2
• Child's curiosity exposes thief. Thief steals pig. Slaughters it together with one of his own and takes both to market. Puts little pig inside large one to avoid paying tax on two. Boy notices three hind legs. Thief is caught. K433
• Clever girl discovers robber and cheats him. K434
• The girl seizes the robber concealed under the bed by the beard and says: "What a coarse bundle of flax. I need a finer one." K434.1
• Disguised robber in night-lodging tries to pull up confederate on rope: princess discovers him and catches him. K434.2
• Girl tells the thief money is in chest. When he looks in chest, girl drops lid on him. K434.3
• Child's song incriminates thief. K435
• Husband makes rhymes about cakes wife has stolen. K435.1
• Blind thief trying to steal dates from withered tree killed by slipping of rope. K436
• Robber overcome. K437
• Robber cheated by substitution. Spending the night in company with a suspicious-looking stranger, the man does not go to sleep, but leaves his clothes in bed and waits to see what will happen. When the stranger wakes up in the night, he stabs at his sleeping companion, who shoots him down. (Cf. K525.1.) K437.1
• Robber with hand of glory killed. A robber disguised as a beggar gets night's lodging at a farm house. Using a candle made of human fat or hand of a corpse, he tries to charm the household into a deep sleep (D1162.2.1). One man who is suspicious and has not gone to sleep sees this and kills the robber. K437.2
• Sausage as revolver. Man scares robber with sausage; later boasts of event at inn. Robber hears this. Innkeeper secretly lends man a real revolver; robber is shot down when boldly attempting a second attack. K437.3
• Conqueror of robber discovers his money-stick. Thinking that he has killed the robber, the man takes his stick or knife with big handle. The robber recovers and, disguised as a beggar, inquisitively looks at the stick. The man is suspicious and by examining finds much money inside it. K437.4
• Robbers enslaved. Youth told by two robbers to go to town and sell bracelet for each. He goes and offers to sell two slaves. Goes back with buyer and cries out "Did you say both?" "Yes." Youth is paid; robbers are enslaved. K437.5
• Thief loses his goods or is detected – miscellaneous. K439
• Betrayal through exchange of stolen goods. K439.1
• Thief claims that stolen goods are his own: detected by master. K439.2
• Thief tricked into robbing himself. He has placed a coat on the goods to be stolen. His associate changes the place of the coat. K439.3
• Thief leaves food untouched when owner pretends to be poisoned by it. (Playing poison.) K439.4
• Sheep thief pretends to buy wethers from the ram, names the price himself. Owner overhears, takes the ram to the thief to collect. K439.5
• Robbers fed poisoned food. K439.6
• Robber induced to give respite and come to man's office to get promised larger sum. Cheated. K439.7
• Tortoise asks greedy man to give him first ruby it has given him to be sure second one will be perfect match: disappears into water with it. K439.7.1
• Owner pretends to think thief is family god and binds him. K439.8
• Owner feigns madness and thus raises alarm: thieves captured. K439.9
• Hidden person sees robbers concealing treasure and takes it. K439.10
• Thief hides in large bottle to get into room: bottle put into water to boil. K439.11
• Other cheats. K440
• Double reward successfully claimed. K441
• The double pension. A husband and wife are jointly under a pension from the king. She reports her husband dead and gets the whole pension. He likewise reports her dead and gets the whole money. K441.1
• The doubly-feed lawyer. A lawyer takes a car as fee from a widow and an ox from her adversary. He pleads for the latter saying that the ox draws the car. K441.2
• Dishonest notary invents debt and collects from both parties. K441.2.1
• Fee from two persons for the same monopoly. Man to furnish goods exclusively to animal. Bargains at same time with another to do the same thing. K441.3
• Trickster collects from both husband and wife. Estranged couple both pay him to effect reconciliation. K441.4
• False claim of reward. K442
• Reward offered for stolen object (princess). Thief (abductor) returns and enforces reward. K442.1
• Money (or other things) acquired by blackmail. K443
• Hidden paramour buys freedom from discoverer. K443.1
• Clever wife gets money from those who attempt to seduce her. Payment for keeping silence. K443.2
• Clever wife gets husband appointed to position occupied by man who attempts to seduce her. K443.2.1
• Money exacted from watchers who permit goods to be stolen. K443.3
• Money exacted from watchers who permit chest to be stolen. The chest is said falsely to be full of money and the watchers subject to severe punishment. K443.3.1
• Money exacted from watcher who permits theft of wooden cow supposed to be real. K443.4
• Trickster entices wolves out of a stable by music: exacts money from their watcher for his carelessness. K443.5
• Trickster exacts promise of marriage as price of silence after having seen a princess naked. K443.6
• Trickster exacts beautiful wife from curious people. They look into a carriage in which it is falsely said there is a princess. Trickster's dead wife is in the carriage. K443.6.1
• Trickster exacts money as price of silence after lying with princess (queen). K443.6.2
• Fox eats his fellow-lodger: accuses another and demands damages. He spends the night with a cock in a house. He eats the cock but in the morning accuses the sheep of having eaten it. In the next inn likewise he says that the ox has eaten the sheep, etc. In compensation he demands a larger animal each time. K443.7
• Priest induced to betray secrets of confessional: money then exacted from him for silence. The trickster confesses that he has had intimacies with the priest's maid and then overhears the priest scold the maid. K443.8
• Women lead man into intrigue and then shout for help. Get money. K443.9
• Rascal extorts money for silence about companion's poverty. K443.10
• Usurer blackmailed. Shrewd suitor persuades usurer to charge him 100 per cent interest, then has him arrested. Thus gets daughter for wife. K443.11
• Princess has brought ill luck to bridegroom. When palace and retainers disappear after wedding and only humble hut remains, clever fox tells king his daughter's feet have brought ill luck to the groom, his master. King gives half his kingdom in compensation. K443.12
• Rascal extorts money for silence about breach of food tabu. K443.13
• Dream bread: the most wonderful dream. Three pilgrims agree that the one who has the most wonderful dream shall eat the last loaf. One eats it and declares that he dreamed that the others were dead and would not need it. K444
• Egg as reward of appropriate saying. First brother (knocking egg against wall): "Casca cascorum." Second (breaking shell and sprinkling dirt over it): "Sar, sale, sapiensa". Third (eating egg): "Consumatus es." K444.1
• Bag of cakes said to be full of cobras. Boy eats cakes. K444.2
• The bag with the rice for the road. Boy eats rice and throws empty bag on the road. K444.3
• The emperor's new clothes. An impostor feigns to make clothes for the emperor and says that they are visible only to those of legitimate birth. The emperor and courtiers are all afraid to admit that they cannot see the clothes. Finally a child seeing the naked emperor reveals the imposture. K445
• God to reveal self to those of legitimate birth. All afraid to admit not seeing God. K445.1
• Whoever hears singing snake must die. Killed by deaf man. (Cf. B214.1.10.) K445.2
• The heller thrown into others' money. A rascal sees robbers dividing their booty. He puts a red string through his only coin (a heller) and slips it into the others' money. He claims the money as his and says that he has marked it with a heller having a red string through it. The robbers divide. K446
• Half a grain. Trickster drops half a grain into grain cellar then demands half of the grain supply. K446.1
• Contraband gold discovered when king offers large price for gold. K447
• Cheater marks coveted object with his name and later claims it. [Inadvertant duplication of J1162.3.] K448
• Unjust umpire as trickster's confederate. (Cf. K455.7.) K451
• Unjust umpire decides a religious dispute. His confederate thus wins an absurd wager. K451.1
• The wager that sheep are hogs. A trickster wagers with a sheep driver that the sheep he is driving are hogs. The next man to overtake them will act as umpire. The trickster's confederate now arrives and declares that they are hogs. K451.2
• Concealed confederate as unjust witness. A rascal who has hidden with a simple man a treasure found by them carries it away secretly, trying to have his associate condemned on the witness of a tree in which his father is concealed. K451.3
• Trickster's confederate gives fabulous appraisal to worthless piece of glass. Priest is duped into buying it as a diamond. K451.4
• Confederate answers for corpse. Man poses as returned heir to dead man; pretends to address corpse for identification. K451.5
• Unjust umpire misappropriates disputed goods. K452
• Dividing the discovered oyster. The umpire takes the oyster itself as fee and gives each contestant half the shell. K452.1
• Unjust umpire keeps the stakes when contest cannot be decided. K452.2
• Cheating through knowledge of the law. K453
• Deception into giving false credit. K455
• Supper won by trick: the mutual friend. A parasite makes the host believe him to be a friend of a certain guest and the guest to think him a friend of the host. K455.1
• Supper won by disguising as an invited guest. K455.2
• Old beggar disguised as gentleman: much money borrowed on his credit. K455.3
• The other man to pay the bill. Three feast at an inn and each makes the host believe that one of the others will pay. None has money and the host is cheated. K455.4
• Trickster buys chickens telling owner that priest will pay. When owner comes to collect, the trickster tells the priest that a heretic has come for confession. Then he flees. (Cf. K242.1.) K455.4.1
• The priest as surety. Feasters are imprisoned because of failure to pay for the food. They name the priest as surety and are released. The priest has been told that the host is possessed and agrees to come to heal him in two weeks. The host loses the money. K455.5
• Complaint about the empty bottle. While the servant in the inn is bringing a glass, the trickster drinks the wine and then complains that he has been given an empty bottle. The servant must bring another. K455.6
• Greatest liar to get his supper free. Wager. Each lie is corroborated by a confederate, who poses as a newly arrived stranger. K455.7
• Credit based on forgery. K455.8
• Forged letter used to obtain credit, consideration, and entertainment. K455.8.1
• Forged testament used to dupe host. K455.8.2
• Worthless chests offered to obtain credit. K455.9
• Trickster receives huge sum on trifling credit by chain of borrowings. Pays small sum in advance for first sum borrowed. Pays this borrowed sum in advance for larger, etc. K455.10
• Trickster takes goods given in charity to his family. K461
• The bear helps the fox's mother get berries: the fox eats them. K461.1
• Monkey causes girl to cry as if from hunger: eats food given her. K461.2
• Eavesdropping sexton duped into giving suppliant money. The trickster prays to the Virgin for a certain sum of money and promises repayment of double at the end of the month. The sexton throws the money to him, but never receives it back. K464
• Owner bids on his own goods at auction. Rival buyer pays extravagant price. K465
• The substituted porridge. In cooking dinner fox's porridge is light, bear's black. At dinner fox steals spoonful of bear's porridge and lets bear taste it. Bear believes that fox's porridge is as bad as his own. K471
• Sham blood and brains. Fox covers his head with milk and says that his brains have been knocked out. Frightens bear. K473
• Trickster cheats rescuers into digging his well. The well that he has dug falls in. He throws his clothes into the hole and hides. People going to church think that man is drowned and dig the well out. K474
• Cheating through equivocation. K475
• The stolen meat handed about. The thief hands it to his confederate. He says, "I haven't it." The confederate says, "I didn't steal it." K475.1
• "Have we leave to go?" Two prisoners are made stable boys on their promise not to escape secretly. Before horse race starts they ask: "Do we have your leave to go?" They go home. K475.2
• Why go all the way to fair? Man robbed of his plate of cakes half way to fair asks another vendor, "Why go to the fair, when half way up people come demanding your plate?" Vendor goes on and meets with same fate. K475.3
• Cheating by substitution of worthless articles. K476
• Entrails substituted for meat. Prometheus divides slain ox so that bones and entrails seem to be choicest part. (Zeus is not deceived.) K476.1
• Rock substituted for ham by trickster. K476.1.1
• Tortoise cheats leopard by substituting bundle of resin for bundle of meat. K476.1.2
• False articles used to produce credit. K476.2
• Nugget of supposed gold (lead) given to help build church: money then borrowed. K476.2.1
• Reward for the bag of lead. A man sews up lead in a bag and feigns to have found it. A merchant claims it and thinking it filled with gold pays him a large reward. K476.2.2
• Water sold as wine. Wine-casks partitioned: one half wine, other half water. K476.3
• Innkeeper serves sweetened water for wine, cat for rabbit, mule for beef. K476.3.1
• False set of rings to offset genuine. Jewels bought with counterfeit money. K476.4
• Priests substitute gilded images of calves for those of solid gold. K476.4.1
• While swimming with the lizard, toad exchanges own ugly daughter for lizard's pretty one. K476.5
• Lean geese substituted for fat by trickster. K476.6
• Woman gives friend dried comb while she herself eats the honey. K476.7
• Cheating by substitution of common cow for magic one. K476.8
• Attention secured by trickery. K477
• Audience secured with the pope by rudeness. A woman bribes a man to get her an audience with the pope. By turning his back to the sacrament and saying that the woman had instructed him to do so, he brings it about that she is summoned into the presence. K477.1
• Deception into listening to speaker. He secures the audience's attention by beginning a tale. He then launches into his speech. K477.2
• Entry into enemy's presence by pretending to be a messenger from a relative. K477.3
• Butter weighed with the bread. The peasant weighs the butter which he is selling to the baker along with the bread which he is buying. K478
• Demi-coq by means of his magic animals and magic water collects money. K481
• Blackbird to avenge capture of his wife carries rope, club, cat, ants and river in ears. K481.1
• Money received to bury sham-dead person. K482
• Husband and wife each receive money (from different persons) to bury the other, who is supposed to be dead. K482.1
• Trickster reports treasure's owner dead: receives it from children. K482.2
• Color of devil's cows changed while he sleeps so that he does not know them. Only those not changed (all black, all red, etc.) belong to the devil. K483
• Cheating by raising an alarm. K484
• Trickster gets money from a bank by raising an alarm and demanding "what is owing to him." K484.1
• Host with overstock of sour wine spreads rumor of dragon at his house. A crowd gathers and he sells all his wine. K484.2
• False alarm of robbery causes cheated man to be imprisoned. K484.3
• The devil gets into the ark. The devil wants to know what Noah is doing when he is building the ark. He forbids Noah's wife to enter the ark until Noah has also invited him. K485
• The double-cheating miller. He confesses that he has an oversized measure and agrees to get a smaller one. He measures back the grain in the smaller measure. K486
• Counselor accuses conspirators in order to confiscate their estates. K487
• Lawyer's dog steals meat. The lawyer tells the butcher that the dog's owner (himself) is liable for damages. He ask double the amount of the damages as fee. K488
• Trickster paid to educate an ass. He gets paid in advance. He gradually starves the ass. K491
• Trickster paid to teach monkey to talk. K491.1
• Horse to be taught to speak. K491.2
• Girl serves her father with piece of her own flesh in place of chicken. K492