60 motifs match “lazy”  ·  back to the chapters

• Why a lad at puberty is energetic and later lazy. A1365
• Creation of monkey: lazy man. A1861.3
• Origin of insects: God throws sand on lazy shepherds. (Cf. A1716.1). A2005
• Why animals lack fire. Sent to steal fire but are lazy and fail. A2436
• Mother wishes lazy daughter may marry devil. Devil appears and marries her. C12.4.1
• Tabu: bearded man being lazy. C565.2
• Witches punish lazy spinning women. G282
• Lazy pupil determines to be more diligent by watching man building home one wattle at a time, and seeing how water fills hole one drop at a time. J67.1
• House dog blames master for teaching him lazy habits. J142.1
• Ass buyer returns ass which has associated with lazy companions. J451.1
• Ant and lazy cricket (grasshopper). Lazy bird is put to shame by thrift of industrious bird. In winter he is in distress. J711.1
• Lazy boy vainly asks God of the Seasons to delay the plowing season. J713.1
• Lazy woman resumes her work. She sees how a little bird by persistence pecks a hole in a stone. J1011
• Listening to the debate. A lazy youth explains his late rising by saying that he lay abed to hear the argument between industry and laziness. J1486
• Boy pretends to speak only Latin. Father, chastising his lazy son, also speaks in "Latin". J1511.11
• "Eat spiritual food, not material," say monks to lazy brother who criticizes them for working in the garden. J1511.16
• The lazy ass repaid in kind. Loaded with salt, he falls down in the river and lightens his burden. His master then loads him with sponges so that the next time the ass tries the trick he increases his load. J1612
• Husband made to believe that yarn has changed to tow through his carelessness. Thus his lazy wife is relieved from spinning. J2325
• Shoving the child. Numskulls, told to shove the boy along if he is lazy about weeding, do so with their weeding-knives and kill him. J2465.3.1
• Sham miracle: may the food turn raw. Lazy wife takes uncooked food to husband in field. K1975.3
• Lazy hero. L114.1
• Lazy jackal punished; industrious pig rewarded. Q5.1
• Lazy owl punished; industrious hummingbird rewarded. Q5.2
• Lazy wife taken naked in bundle of straw to a wedding. (Cf. Q321.) Q495.1
• Lazy boy and industrious girl matched. Jesus (incognito) as matchmaker. T125
• Man's senior wife ugly but diligent; his second, beautiful but lazy. T145.7
• Cat ceases catching rats as soon as he is given a home in a monastery. Thus with lazy priests. U271
• Man is burned to death because he is too lazy to put out spark. W111.1.1.1
• Lazy man's belongings burn. He is too lazy to stop rats from playing with lighted candle. W111.1.1.2
• Man too lazy to open eyes to see where fire is burning. W111.1.1.3
• Three lazy beggars burn alive rather than run away from burning castle. W111.1.1.4
• Man so lazy that he will not wipe his running nose. This causes him to lose prospective bride. W111.1.4
• Man floating in river too lazy to drink. His voice is damaged. W111.1.5
• Man too lazy to pick up berries (dates). W111.1.6
• The lazy servant. W111.2
• Lazy servant gets others to perform his duties. W111.2.0.1
• Lazy boy always says that it is raining. The peasant and the boy sleep during the rain in the hay barn. When the peasant asks, the boy always says that it is still raining. W111.2.7
• Lazy boy says he cannot walk. W111.2.8
• The lazy wife. W111.3
• Lazy wife in soiled dress thinks husband is bringing her a new dress from market. He is bringing a goose. W111.3.1
• Cat beaten for not working. Lazy wife must hold cat and is scratched. W111.3.2
• Lazy wife throws bread out of window instead of putting it back into oven. W111.3.3
• Why he beats her. Lazy wife beaten by husband maintains that she has done nothing. That is why he is beating her. W111.3.4
• Wife too lazy to spin. Supposed dead husband comes back to life and gives his wife a beating, because there was no shirt even in the event of death. W111.3.5
• Lazy husband. W111.4
• Other lazy persons. W111.5
• Lazy mother given shoes of cotton; son knows that she will not wear them out. W111.5.1
• Lazy girl does not know where the spring is. W111.5.2
• Lazy man asked direction only points with his foot. W111.5.3
• Lazy dog wakes only for his meals. W111.5.4
• Man in mud too lazy to take hand extended to help him up. W111.5.5
• Lazy son-in-law: afraid of a dog. W111.5.6
• Ruler is too lazy to stop quarrels. They lead to his death. W111.5.7
• Man is so lazy that he starves rather than open his mouth for food to fall in when it falls from trees. W111.5.8.1
• Learning a trade in bed. Working independently, the lazy fellow spoils the materials received – starts making something big, which at the end turns to nothing. For example, begins with forging a plough: this becomes an axe, the axe a knife, and knife a needle, the needle – nothing. (Cf. J2080.) W111.5.9
• Lazy man asks if wood is split before he accepts it as a gift. W111.5.10
• Lazy man is being taken to poorhouse or out of town or to cemetery to be buried alive. The group take pity on him, offer him various articles to help him get started again. One offers a bushel of corn. The lazy one rises up from the bottom of the wagon or coffin where he has been lying: "Is the corn shelled?" W111.5.10.1
• Lazy man misses seeing the sheriff's funeral; he is facing the wrong way as the procession passes. W111.5.11
• Bird advises man to treat his lazy children as she does her young: "In March I make my nest .... in August I have nothing more to do with my young." Z24.1.2
• The lazy servant and the grain. "Lentils, lentils, get into my sack!" Final formula: the hungry hawk attacks the hens, the hens the worms, the worms the stick, the stick the ox, the ox runs to the water, the water attacks the fire, the fire the hunters, the hunters the wolf, the wolf the goat, the goat the willow, the willow the cat, the cat the mice, the mice the lentils, the lentils go whoosh whoosh into the sack. Z41.9