38 motifs match “replies”  ·  back to the chapters

• Christ asks woman what she is cooking; she replies that she is boiling stones to make her children think they are peas and that they will have food. Christ changes the stones to peas. D452.1.6.1
• Wit combat among three sisters for additional dowry. Replies to husbands when their premarital pregnancy is noticed. H507.4
• The full moon and the thirtieth of the month. Prince sends servant to clever girl with a round tart, thirty cakes, and a capon, and asks her if it is full moon and the thirtieth of the month and if the cock has crowed in the evening. She replies that it is not full moon, that it is the fifteenth of the month, and that the capon has gone to the mill; but that the prince should spare the pheasant for the partridge's sake. She thus shows him that the servant has stolen half the tart, half of the cakes, and the capon. H582.1.1
• Millstone preferred to jewels. Man shown jewels that cost much money; he replies that he has better stones (millstones) that earn that much. J245.1
• Good shepherd shears his sheep; does not skin them. Emperor thus replies to suggestion of a new tax to be laid on the people. J531
• Fool given the truth on his back. He tells his master what the servants have done during his absence. The servants whip him on his bare back, saying at each blow, "That is the truth." When the master returns and tells the fool to tell the truth, the latter replies, "There is nothing worse on earth than the truth." J551.2
• Cease being a king. A widow asks justice of a king. The latter says that he is too busy to hear her. "Then cease being a king," replies the widow. Her bold reply wins an audience with the king. J1284.2
• Man asks naked Indian if he is not cold. Indian asks if man's face is cold. Man replies that it is not. Indian replies: "Me all face!" J1309.1
• Before, during, and after. A priest, asked when he would have certain choice wine served, before or after the meal, replies, "The holy Mary was Virgin before, during, and after the birth." J1343.2
• Why he did not eat the bread. When host inquires, he replies, "If thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread." J1345
• Ancient and modern ancestors. To a prince who boasted that he was descended from the Trojans a doctor replies: "My people are of Nurenberg. Everyone knows who they are; but of the Trojans no one knows anything except that Aeneas was a traitor and Romulus a robber." J1357
• The tailor's dream. A tailor dreams that at Judgment Day he sees a flag made up of all the pieces of cloth he has stolen Upon waking he asks his servants to warn him if they ever see him tempted to steal again. This happens. He replies, "The piece I am about to steal does not fit into the flag." J1401
• The fools in the city. Man ordered to number the fools in the city replies, "It is easier to number the wise men." J1443
• They gave it away themselves. A wandering actor rewarded by a city with a coat of their color gambles it away. When upbraided about giving away their present he replies that they hadn't wanted to keep it themselves. J1444
• The cause of grayness. Fool asked what made him gray-headed replies, "My hair." J1461
• A long beard and sanctity. Told that a forest dwarf with a long beard is a saint, a man replies: "If a long beard indicates sanctity, the goat is a saint." J1463
• The fairest thing in the garden. Three brothers asked by princess what is the most beautiful thing in the garden. The youngest replies, "Yourself." He wins the princess. J1472
• Is ready to go. A peddler scolds the dog who is waiting and tells him to get ready to go with him. The dog replies that he has nothing to carry, that it is the peddler who is late. J1475
• As you surely will. After her husband's death a woman cannot find a hammer and anvil. She goes to a dying neighbor and says, "If you die, as you surely will, and go to Heaven, as you surely will not, ask my husband where he left the hammer and anvil." The dying man's wife replies, "If you go to Heaven, as you surely will, if you die as you surely will not, do not run around and get into trouble, but sit down by the Eternal Father and observe and keep still." J1481
• Make-believe eating, make-believe work. At table the peasant says, "We will only act as if we were eating." At work the servant replies, "We will only act as if we were working." J1511.1
• Corpse to be cut in two for easy carrying. Husband who feigns death hears wife propose this. He upbraids her; she replies: "If you had really died I should have given myself up to be burnt." J1545.8
• Sharing his wounds. Two men on parting agree to share everything they receive. One returns with much money. His friend reminds him of the pact. He replies that he has also received many wounds. The friend is willing to forego dividing. J1621
• Armies like seeds and peppercorns. One king sends large sack of seed to the other to represent the number of his soldiers. The second replies with a small bag of peppercorns: "My army is small compared to yours but has all the power of the peppercorn compared to your lifeless seed." J1625
• To give the accounting afterward. A nobleman embezzles money from the public treasury. When counsellors urge an accounting, he replies that he is ready as soon as they have themselves made an accounting of all their transactions. They are ready to let well enough alone. J1627
• Christ's image has broken his arm. A man refuses to have anything to do with the crucifix because once an image of Christ has fallen on him in church and broken his arm. Reminded that this image is not the same, he replies that it is the son of the other and is just as bad. J1823.1.2
• More than twenty commandments. Numskull asked the number of commandments replies that there are twenty. He explains to another that he knows there must be more than twenty because the minister would not accept his answer. J2213.5.1
• His brother cannot pray either. One brother receives the sacrament; the other is refused it because he cannot pray. He replies that his brother cannot pray either and thus deprives him also of the sacrament. J2352.1
• Trickster cheats by pretending deafness. Palm rat, when asked to throw down nuts according to bargain, replies that he is deaf when eating. K231.15
• Saint ransoms prince for much gold and silver. Later all the money vanishes. Saint replies that since the money had been created from nothing, it had simply to return to that state. K236.3.1
• Give him what he wants. (Cf. K437.5, K1354.1.) Thief sent to man's house for water, demands money. Man's wife refuses and thief shouts to the husband who replies, "Give him what he wants." K362.10
• The ass without a heart. The ass as toll-gatherer is killed by the lion for asking for toll. The fox eats the ass's heart. When the lion asks for it, the fox replies that the ass could have had no heart since he was such a fool as to ask the lion for toll. K402.3
• "Both?" The youth is sent to the house to get two articles. He meets the two daughters and calls back to the master. "Both?" "Yes, I said both!" replies the master. The youth has his will of both daughters. K1354.1
• Saint hides fugitive from king underground. When king demand fugitive, saint (who never lies) replies, "Verily, I know not where he is, if he is not under thee even where thou art." The king is satisfied and departs. Later suspects trick and arrests fugitive. K2319.3
• Man reprimanded by judge for marrying several times. The man replies that he was always looking for a good wife. T251.0.3
• 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
• Travelers pass through Wesley. One asks name of town; another replies, "This is Wesley." Another says, "I thought it was Thursday." Third says, "So am I; let's have a drink." X111.15
• Would not lie for a trifle. Liar tells of shooting large number of animals with one shot (an odd number, usually 99). When asked why he did not make it a round number (or an even hundred), he replies indignantly that he would not lie for one pigeon (rabbit). X906
• Little ant finds a penny, buys new clothes with it, and sits in her doorway. Various animals pass by and propose marriage. She asks what they do at night. Each one replies with its characteristic sound, and none pleases her but the quiet little mouse, whom she marries. She leaves him to tend the stew, and he falls in and drowns. She weeps and, on learning the reason, bird cuts off its beak, dove cuts off its tail, etc. Z32.3