42 motifs match “guilty”  ·  back to the chapters

• Fish eat other fish: guilty must swim deep. (Cf. A2444.1.) A2238.3
• Lizard loses lawsuit: must bob his head. Lizard and ant accused of theft of king's crow. Ant pours boiling water down lizard's throat. When case is tried, lizard cannot talk but only bobs head up and down. Adjudged guilty and condemned to bob his head eternally. (Cf. A2474.1.) A2255.2
• Magic object picks out guilty man. D1318.0.1
• Ship refuses to move with guilty man aboard. D1318.10.1
• Wizard detects thieves by placing leaf from Bible under doorstep. The guilty ones stumble over doorstep. D1817.0.1.5
• Guilty persons being confronted with their crimes become "insensate like trees". F1041.1.3.10.1
• Ordeal: virgin to pull on hot iron and name men. Only with guilty will she and he be burnt. H221.2.1
• Ordeal: names of suspected persons are placed in chalice on altar: the one to whom the lot falls is guilty. H233.1
• Ordeal: cock under pot crows when guilty person touches pot. H235
• Thief detected by sieve and shears. Sieve put on open shears and then grasped by two fingers so as to balance. Charm recited. If sieve trembles when name is called, that person is guilty. H251.3.3
• Magic object cast on water sinks if person is guilty. H251.3.7
• Magic object clings to hand of guilty person. H251.3.8
• Guilty person deceived into gesture (act) which admits guilt. J1141.1
• Largest part of a prize to go to the guilty man. In order to obtain the prize, he confesses the earlier crime. J1141.1.1
• "Guilty man's stick will grow during night." Guilty man chops end off stick. J1141.1.4
• "Thief has the feathers sticking on his head": guilty woman immediately passes her hand over her head. J1141.1.5
• Accused woman to go three times around building naked: guilty one begins to strip off her clothes. J1141.1.8
• The guilty protests his innocence. Animals put to graze in man's garden. Owner greets everyone with: "I know about you!" No one pays any attention to him except the guilty one who says: "I did not do it." Confesses. (Cf. N275.) J1141.9
• Confession obtained by making thief fear for his life. (Told that crossbow would shoot guilty person as he passed before it.) J1141.10
• Guilty man freed of murder charge is tricked into making a false accusation for which he is sentenced. J1141.12
• Magistrate finds thieving innkeepers guilty of arson. Silver buckles are not melted by the fire. J1149.9
• Washing test: defendants given basin of water. Guilty one wastes it uselessly. J1149.11
• Eye of king's foster-son damaged by sting of bee. Boy's friends demand eye of king's son in forfeit; king decrees instead destruction of swarm of bees so that guilty one may perish. J1179.14
• Judge finds offense is not great when it is his own son who is guilty. [Inadvertant duplication of U21.5.] J1197
• The father of an illegitimate child must walk in front of the cross. Condemned man insists that the priest, who is guilty also, shall lead the way. J1515.1
• All sins since the birth of Christ. A stupid man at confession says, "I confess myself guilty of all sins that I have committed since Christ's birth." "Are you so old?" "Yes, and I have a brother who is three years older than I." J1743.1
• Fool believes plea of not guilty even though he has seen man injure him. J2045
• Innocent made to appear guilty. K2150
• Sentence applied to king's own son. Those caught in adultery are to have eyes put out. When king's son is found guilty he insists on the punishment. He finally compromises by having one of his own and one of his son's eyes put out. M13
• Father causes death of innocent son, believing him guilty of adultery with father's wife. N344.2
• Brother about to drink blood of seemingly guilty sister. P253.1
• Friends offer to die for each other. (Bürgschaft.) Each falsely confesses crime so as to save the other. Neither guilty. Often combined with P325. P315
• "To every son belongs his mother": in case of suspected illegitimacy, child is not guilty. P526.2
• Punishment: millstone dropped on guilty person. Q412
• Mother guilty of incest with son forgiven by Pope (Virgin Mary). T412.1
• Mother guilty of incest with son whose honor she is testing. T412.3
• Pope guilty of simony. V466.1
• Eloquent lawyer makes obviously guilty client doubt his own guilt. X319.1
• Guilty of everything connected with the seven senses. When the priest to whom he is confessing says there are but five senses, the magistrate says that he needs two more senses than other people. X331
• Who is guilty of the accident. (One person blames another who blames another, etc.) Z49.11
• Wall in construction collapses. Finally the king finds out that the sea is guilty. (The chain: mason – cement mixer – beautifully singing woman – pearl necklace – jeweller – diver – sea.) Z49.11.1
• Man takes case against wind for damages. Wanting to have nothing to do with a court, the wind generously makes good the damages, and punishes the judge guilty of bribery. Z115.1