35 motifs match “decision”  ·  back to the chapters

• Deity changes decision. A196.2.1
• Parrot and sparrow argue right to inherit property left by man. Sparrow says his interests are the same as man's; parrot says that he caused all man's wealth, since man sold his feathers. People's decision for parrot. B271.1
• Magic slippers approve or disapprove judicial decisions. (Cf. D1065.7.) D1326.1
• Decision made by contest. H217
• Decision of victory by single combat between army leaders. (Cf. H218.) H217.1
• Decision by single combat or holmgang of who is to marry girl. H217.2
• Clever prince overrules seemingly just decisions of king. J123.1
• Wit interprets unfavorable decision of court as doing him great honor. J835
• Which is man and which demon in man's shape? Decision to go to whichever can go through end of reed. J1141.1.7
• Clever judicial decisions. J1170
• The Irish Solomon (Cormac mac Airt). Famed for his clever decisions. J1170.2
• Not the same purse as was lost. Finder of a purse containing 800 gulden returns it to owner for reward. Latter says that purse had 900 gulden in it. In court. Decision: The rich man speaks truth. The purse found is not the one he lost. The finder may keep it. J1172.1
• Animals render unjust decision against man since man has always been unjust to them. J1172.3.2
• Series of clever unjust decisions: plaintiff voluntarily withdraws. (1) Man pulls off borrowed horse's tail: he shall keep horse till tail grows on. (2) Man falls out of bed and kills a baby (or causes a miscarriage): he shall beget a new baby for the mother. (3) Man falls from a bridge and kills boatsman's son: shall allow boatsman to fall from bridge and kill him. J1173
• Clever decisions concerning kissing and rape. J1174
• Man breaks promise to sleep chastely with woman. Decision: deceived fiance is to sleep with seducer's wife, if he ever marries. J1174.2.1
• The girl screams when she is robbed. Accuses young man of raping her. When he tries to rob her of money she summons help. Decision: if she had shouted as loud before, the man could not have raped her. Youth acquitted. J1174.3
• Decisions based on experimental tests. J1176
• Clever judicial decisions – miscellaneous. J1179
• Enoch Arden decision. Man believing wife dead becomes a priest. Later finds her alive. Pope's decision: he may remain both a priest and husband but must not consort with any other woman. J1179.10
• Cardinal's clever decision: that the monks who arise earliest may sound matins. There had been a great argument over this privilege. J1179.13
• Reductio ad absurdum: the decision about the colt. A man ties his mare to a second man's wagon. The mare bears a colt which the wagon-owner claims, saying that the wagon has borne a colt. Real owner of the colt shows the absurdity (1) by fishing in the street or (2) by telling that his wife is shooting fish in the garden. Neither of these things are so absurd as the decision. J1191.1
• "The sea is on fire" – not more absurd than the decision about the colt. J1191.1.1
• Judge awards decision to the greater bribe. J1192.1
• Error was in the honey. Trickster takes jar filled with earth but with honey on top as bribe to the judge. He takes the decision in writing. Cheat is discovered and judge sends message that an error has been made. Reply: the decision was right; the error is in the honey. (Cf. J1176.3.) J1192.2
• Judge frightened into awarding decision. J1195
• The doubly-bribed judge. One of the disputants keeps the hens he is to give the judge in his hand and when the decision begins to go against him makes the hens cry out. J1212.1
• How can an elephant eat, having tails at both ends? Decision: it lives on air. J1903.4
• Senseless judicial decisions. M1
• Inhuman decisions of king. M2
• Inhuman decision of king: sends man's sons to certain death and then murders man. M2.1
• Decision left to first person to arrive. M92
• Youngest of judges first to give decision. P516
• Decision not to punish a jealous husband: he already suffers enough. T257.3
• Indecision. (Cf. J1040.) W123