The nature of life

169 motifs · page 1 of 1

• Life's inequalities. U0
• Justice and injustice. U10
• Small trespasses punished; large crimes condoned. U11
• Ass punished for stealing mouthful of grass; lion and wolf forgiven for eating sheep. U11.1
• Animals confess sins to one another: fox and wolf forgive each other; punish ass. (Cf. V20.) U11.1.1
• Animals confess sins to lion holding court. All the powerful animals forgiven. Ass and lamb are punished. U11.1.1.1
• Penitent in confession worries about little sins and belittles the big ones. U11.1.1.2
• He who steals much called king; he who steals little called robber. U11.2
• Wolf punished for theft; kings honored. U11.2.1
• Largest burdens laid on smallest asses: best offices to most ignorant men. U12
• Unworthy rewarded instead of the worthy. U14
• Fool laughs at the absurdities he sees about him. (1) Sees a man who is to die that day buy shoes. (2) Sees sheriff leading a man to the gallows: a big thief leading a little one. (3) Sees farmer weeping at funeral of his child, while priest (the real father) sings. U15
• Dwarf king (fairy) laughs at the absurdities he sees about him. (1) Sees man who is to die that day complain that his shoes are too thin. (Cf. J2174.) (2) Sees women adorn their heads when they are immoral below. (Cf. J2050.) (3) Sees man remove from his wife's garment dust gathered while she lay with another man. (Cf. J2301.3.) (4) Sees persons making plans while forgetting to say, "If God wills." U15.0.1
• Philosopher laughs at the vanities and sins of the world. His companion weeps. U15.1
• The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. U18
• Justice depends on the point of view. U21
• Hen complains that man eats her, but she eats ant. U21.1
• A gift of property silences criticism. A priest who has preached against lucrative places given the clergy is silent when he receives one. U21.2
• Man complains of injustice of gods' wrecking ship because of one man's sin. He then kills whole swarm of ants because one has stung him. U21.3
• Wolf objects to lion stealing sheep from him although he has himself stolen it. U21.4
• Judge reduces penalty when accused is his own son. [Inadvertant duplication of J1197.] U21.5
• Theft to avoid starvation forgiven. U25
• Swallow killed in court house by snake laments injustice in house of justice. U27
• Rights of the strong. U30
• Wolf unjustly accuses lamb and eats him. When all the lamb's defenses are good the wolf asserts the right of the strong over the weak. (Usually accused of stirring up water from lower in stream.) (Cf. U141.) U31
• Cat unjustly accuses cock and eats him. Although all the cock's defenses are good the cat tells him that she can no longer go hungry and eats him. U31.1
• Crow exercises rights of strong over dove who cannot defend self. Dove at crow's request sings to save her brood which crow kills after song. U31.2
• Smallness of offense no excuse when hunter prepares to kill lark. She has stolen but a single grain of wheat. U32
• Cock killed by his captors in spite of his plea of usefulness to man. U33
• Nobleman murders one of the people. Goes unpunished. U34
• Nobleman who kills one of the people is brought to justice only after long delay. U34.1
• Rich man (king) seizes poor widow's (nun's) cow. U35
• King seizes old woman's cow. U35.1
• King seizes poor man's lamb. U35.1.1
• Nobles ruin peasant's (widow's) crops with impunity. U35.2
• Lion cub killed by bull gives lioness no right to complain. U36
• Wolf as commander orders all booty divided, but keeps his own. U37
• Ruler exiles subject for trivial remark. U38
• Ruler forces bishop to ordain ignorant priest. U41
• Praise what your master likes and scorn what he dislikes. U42
• Wealth and poverty. U60
• Dividing after God's fashion: little to poor, much to rich. U61
• Priest has no friends until he becomes bishop: then they flock to him. U63
• Wealth is relative: beggar with horse, wife, or dog considered rich by poorer beggar. U65
• Grass serves as pleasant couch for poor. U65.1
• Every man has his price. U66
• Every woman has her price. U66.1
• Bid raised for queen's favors until she hesitates. Jester replies, "If a man have goods enough, he might have a sovereign lady." U66.1.1
• Jester takes cow and tells king people have plenty of milk, for "he who is warm thinks everyone else is." U67
• Optimist becomes pessimist when his money is stolen. U68
• Man so constantly enriched by God that he cannot give all his goods to the poor. U71
• Great possessions bring great risks. U81
• Dove's pride in her large brood linked with fear for their loss. U81.1
• King in exile neglected, but courted when he regains throne. U83
• Price of object depends on where it is on sale. U84
• Appearances deceive. U110
• Many books do not make a scholar. U111
• Many books do not make a scholar: youth tricks mother by carrying many books. U111.1
• Beard on she-goats do not make a male. U112
• Big voice: little creature. (Frogs, crickets.) U113
• Mountain in labor brings forth a mouse. U114
• The skeleton in the closet. An apparently happy man lets another see the actual misery of his existence. U115
• Apparently happy woman discloses the skeleton of her slain paramour. U115.1
• Hypocrite is acclaimed as saint after his death. U116
• Man rejects bride because she seems immature. Her father reassures him that she has had several children already. U117
• Other ways in which appearances deceive. U119
• Revelations of a satyr. U119.1
• At a funeral of a child a satyr reveals that the real father (officiating priest) sings while the cuckold weeps. (Cf. U15.) U119.1.1
• At a hanging the witnesses are bigger thieves than the culprit. (Cf. U10.) U119.1.2
• Peasant wishes to exchange places with monks. Thinks they lead a very easy life. One night's experience in the monastery makes him change his mind. U119.2
• Handsome exterior does not indicate beautiful soul. Angel holds nose when handsome sinner passes. U119.3
• An ugly face does not mean an ugly soul. A noble and holy man who is very ugly is proved to be a saintly soul. U119.4
• Stories to show that one's name does not alter his condition. U119.5
• Nature will show itself. U120
• Like parent, like child. U121
• Crab walks backward: learned from his parents. U121.1
• Hind, like his mother, flees before the hounds. Useless for her to urge him to stand up against them. U121.2
• Farmer's son and noble's reared in country. The former takes to toil on farm, the latter to riding and hunting. U121.3
• Alleged son of king proved to be bastard when he displays habits of his true father. U121.4
• Father, like son, acts foolishly at king's court. U121.5
• Butcher's son becomes cruel and atrocious ruler. U121.6
• Dungbeetle prefers his dunghill to all other smells. U122
• Beetles treated with as much honor as oxen will not learn to act as oxen. U122.1
• Hog goes to bath but wallows in the mud. U123
• Scorpion, in spite of himself, stings the turtle carrying him across the stream. Is drowned. U124
• Wolf loses interest in the sermon when he sees a flock of sheep. A dervish preaches to him. U125
• Heron (crane) loses interest in heaven if there are no snails. U125.1
• Dog allowed to warm self in house begins to bark. Is chased off. U126
• Fawn, in spite of his fine horns, runs from the dog. U127
• Tiger son of human mother scratches her and licks her blood. U128
• Tiger father of human child licks its blood. U128.1
• Nature will show itself – miscellaneous. U129
• Thieving nature of the fox will show itself. U129.1
• Prostitute will deceive new lover as always. U129.2
• Washerman as minister thinks of washing and fails the king. [Inadvertant duplication of J677.] U129.3
• The power of habit. U130
• Newly rich cannot resist call for distribution of food to beggars. U130.1
• Familiarity takes away fear. U131
• Fox finally converses with lion whom he had feared at first. U131.1
• Men at first frightened at camel take him into their service. U131.2
• Man soon learns to stand the smells of the tannery. U133
• Farmer prefers stable smells to flowers. Latter make him ill. U133.1
• Knight doesn't want to go to heaven if there are no hunting dogs there. U134
• Longing for accustomed food and living. U135
• At feast cat chooses rat meat; other animals cannot eat it. U135.1
• Shepherd in king's palace sickens for country air. U135.2
• Former slave sickens for accustomed food. U135.3
• Peasant girl married to king longs for peasant ways of eating. U135.3.1
• Peasants fed white bread demand the rye bread to which they are accustomed. U135.3.2
• Fisher and hunter exchange catches for variety: soon return to original food. U136
• Dissatisfied workmen exchange work: still more dissatisfied. U136.1
• Beasts and fishes exchange places: fatal to both. U136.2
• Mill horse when taken to war keeps going in a circle, as he has learned in the mill. U137
• Habit of dishonesty (thievery) cannot be broken. U138
• Dishonest silversmith restless until silver ornament is mixed with alloy. U138.1
• Thieves cannot quit plundering. U138.2
• Power of habit – miscellaneous. U139
• Habitual food and drink continued even when it is harmful. U139.1
• Conservatism defies reason. U139.2
• Conservative but absurd way of slaughtering hog stubbornly kept. U139.2.1
• One man's food is another man's poison. U140
• Enmity between fisherman and dweller on the river. Fishing stirs up the water and makes it unfit for drinking. (Cf. U31.) U141
• Ox likes loving strokes of man; flea fears them. U142
• Collier and fuller cannot live together: one makes things clean, the other soils them. U143
• Nightingale cannot lodge with birds whose nest is made of manure. U144
• Royalty unable to endure coarse entertainment. U146
• Coarse food, etc., sends adulterous king back to his wife. U146.1
• Animals try unsuccessfully to exchange food. U147
• Good weather for one is foul for another. U148
• Bird wants sunshine, worm clouds. U148.1
• What is one man's food is another man's poison – miscellaneous. U149
• Lions despise what asses admire (braying). U149.1
• Indifference of the miserable. U150
• Ass indifferent to enemy's approach: he could be no more miserable than now. U151
• Misfortune with oneself to blame the hardest. U160
• Eagle killed with arrow made with his own feather. U161
• Tree cut down with axe for which it has furnished a handle. U162
• Behavior of the blind. U170
• Blind man crosses a narrow bridge which his guide is afraid to attempt. U171
• Two blind men succeed in fooling each other about their blindness. U172
• Futile attempt to explain to a blind man meaning of "white". U173
• In vino veritas. U180
• Man unable to persuade wife to confess misdeed to priest succeeds when he makes her drunk. (Cf. J1141.) U181
• Bad ruler, bad subject. U210
• No great knights now because no great kings. U211
• To have good servants a lord must be good. U212
• Forced peace valueless. U220
• Monk under pressure from abbot forgives the crucifix which has fallen and hurt him. He says that nevertheless there will always be hatred between them. U221
• The nature of sin. U230
• Monk leaves monastery when he sees a devil there tempting brethren. Returns when in the world he sees scores of devils tempting the people. U230.0.1
• Hermit having rebuked youth falls himself when exposed to the same sin. U231
• Monk rebukes brethren who succumb to temptation. When he is exposed to it he understands what temptation is. U231.1
• No place secret enough for sin. U232
• Lying is incurable. A father asks about his son. When he hears that he lies, he gives the son up as hopeless. Other sins may be outgrown. U235
• Liar cannot be healed even when taking bath in the Ganges. U235.1
• False repentance of the sick. Wolf having eaten too much meat promises God to eat no more meat. When he becomes well he eats as before. U236
• False repentance of the sick, rich man. After his death it was discovered that he had intended to retrieve his money from church if he recovered. U236.1
• Power of mind over body. U240
• King grows lean from fear of death. U241
• Hares fearing death outrun pursuing dogs. U242
• The hare's last will. Surrounded by hunters and hounds, the hare considers to whom each of his members will be allotted. Succeeds in escaping. U242.1
• Courage conquers all and impossible is made possible. U243
• Shortness of life. U250
• The bad custom in the world: the young die as well as the old. Hence youth enters monastery. U251
• Passage of time. U260
• Time seems short to those who play, long for those who wait. So says servant girl whose mistress upbraids her for late hours. U261
• Suffering healed by time. U262
• Security breeds indifference. U270
• Cat ceases catching rats as soon as he is given a home in a monastery. Thus with lazy priests. U271