67 motifs match “thinking”  ·  back to the chapters

• Creation: materialization of creator's thinking. Creator "thinks outward in space" and thus produces the universe. A612
• Man springs into existence from deity's body by his mere thinking. A1211.0.1
• Worm, thinking that world is coming to end, blinds self so as not to see calamity. (Cf. A2332.6.4.) A2284.3
• Person summoned by thinking of him. D2074.2.1
• Mowing contest with household spirit. Farmer puts harrow teeth in plot spirit is to mow. Spirit mows through them, thinking they are dock weeds. F488.2
• Woman dies of broken heart on learning that her former husband is still alive. She had remarried thinking him dead. F1041.1.3.7
• Man dies from frog's bite, thinking it snakebite. F1041.1.11.4
• Devil helps build Halberstadt Cathedral thinking a tavern is being built. G303.9.1.12
• Devil cannot enter person who is thinking of God. G303.16.2.1.1
• Jinn falls into cauldron of boiling oil, thinking it is food. G512.3.4
• Test: which of twins is elder. Younger unthinkingly hands chopsticks to elder and thus betrays his junior rank. H255
• "What am I thinking?" "That I am the priest." So answers youth masking as priest. H524.1
• Test of curiosity: the paternoster. Plowman is promised a horse if he can say a paternoster without thinking of anything else. In the midst of the recitation, he asks if he will get the saddle and bridle too. He loses bargain. H1554.3
• Difficulty of thinking of God when occupied with worldly affairs. Shown by test: holy man made to carry milk without spilling. So occupied he forgets to think of God. J94
• Consolation by thinking of some good aspect of a situation. J865
• Consolation by thinking of the past. J866
• Poor man consoles self by thinking of misfortunes of rich. J883
• Man in cold consoles himself thinking of rich men in hell or prison. J883.2
• His proper title. A peasant goes to a judge and thinking to gain his favor addresses him with high titles. The judge calls him a fool. "I was mistaken, you swine!" J1286
• One basket of wit better than twelve carloads of it. Female jackal saves herself and husband by quick thinking. (Cf. K622.1.) J1662.1
• Other animals thought to be a giant cat. Hero in search of monster brings home a dog, zebra, etc. thinking it is the animal he seeks. J1756
• Fool rides tiger thinking it to be a big male-goat. J1758.1.1
• The bear mistaken for a saint. The godless man is cheated and attacks a bear thinking it is a saint, and barely escapes with his life. J1762.2.1
• Dead mistaken for the living. Man with abhorrence for corpse sleeps with one thinking it alive. (Cf. H1410.) J1769.2.1
• Man puts food bowl on head thinking it a helmet. J1772.5
• Person in haunted house shoots off all his toes thinking they are ghosts. (Cf. J1838.) J1782.8
• Diving for cheese. Man (animal) sees moon reflected in water and, thinking it a cheese, dives for it. J1791.3
• Dog drops his meat for the reflection. Crossing a stream with meat in his mouth he sees his reflection; thinking it another dog with meat he dives for it and loses his meat. J1791.4
• Goose dives for star, thinking it a fish. The next day when she sees fish, she lets it escape. J1791.8
• Swimming (fishing) in the flax-field. Peasants go to visit the sea. They see a waving flax-field, and, thinking it is the sea, jump in to swim. J1821
• Numskull throws the dishes out. A landlord in anger throws a dish out the window. The numskull throws the rest out, thinking that the landlord wanted to eat outdoors. J1831
• One-third for the price of one-fourth. In the grain sale the fool sells a third of a cask for the price of a fourth, thinking that he is cheating the buyer. J2083.1
• The ogre tars the hero's boat, thinking to injure him. J2171.1.2
• A fleeing fox loses an eye in the briars. Returns the next day and eats it, thinking that it tastes like chicken. J2182
• The man who wanted to be dead one day. A husband tells his wife that he has provisions for every day in the year but one. He proposes to play dead for that one day, thinking that the servants will be overcome with grief and cannot eat. After brief mourning, however, they eat more than usual. The man then thinks to frighten them by rising from the dead. One servant thinking the dead man suffering from devils kills him. J2188
• The dead man speaks up. A numskull who has lain down thinking he is dead is carried off in a bier. The carriers lose their way. He speaks up, "I always went that way when I was alive." J2311.4
• The philosophical watchman. A master sets his servant to keep watch over his horse at night. He soon asks the servant if he is asleep. "No, I was thinking of who created so many stars in the sky." The second time the servant answers, "No, I was thinking of who dug the sea. Where did he put the soil?" The third time: "I was wondering who would carry the saddle now that the horse is stolen." J2377
• Monkey cuts his throat, thinking that he is imitating the cobbler. J2413.4.3
• The dead girl frightens father and lover. The girl dies. The lover, thinking that she is asleep, talks to her. When he hears the father speak of her as dead he is frightened that he has talked to the dead. The father hears the lover talk and thinks that it is the girl's spirit. Both flee. J2621
• Not to sleep for three successive nights. The sleepy man: "I am just thinking, that on earth there are more crooked trees than straight ones ... more hills than plains ... more water than land ..." The devil goes to ascertain these things, meanwhile the man sleeps. Unsuccessful imitation by another man. K216.3
• Order to put a small vessel of milk into huge container. Shrewd group each by himself pours water thinking this will not be detected if the others pour milk. K231.6.1.1
• Blind Dupe. A blind man's arrow is aimed for him by his mother (or wife) who deceives him into thinking that he has missed his aim. She eats the slain game herself. K333.1
• Conqueror of robber discovers his money-stick. Thinking that he has killed the robber, the man takes his stick or knife with big handle. The robber recovers and, disguised as a beggar, inquisitively looks at the stick. The man is suspicious and by examining finds much money inside it. K437.4
• Reward for the bag of lead. A man sews up lead in a bag and feigns to have found it. A merchant claims it and thinking it filled with gold pays him a large reward. K476.2.2
• Escape by frightening tiger into thinking goat in cave is the ghost of his father. K547.12
• Escape by laughing and crying at same time. Captured bird cries in thinking of her little ones and laughs under pretext that the hunter is wasting his time instead of taking the treasure which she pretends is in her house. The hunter leaves her. K608
• Dupes persuaded to be burned, thinking they will be sent back with gifts. K843.1
• "I don't believe you have a gold coin." Trickster handed money by each of four blind beggars, each thinking that member of group speaks. K1081.1.1
• Innocent girl sells her "love" and later receives it back. When she tells her mother what has happened, she is beaten. Thinking to right matters, she demands that the knight return what he has taken. (Sequel: K1275.) K1362
• Girl takes place of impostor in marriage bed; impostor's mother beats her, thinking she is heroine. K1611.3
• Two soldiers slay each other thinking they are slaying a common enemy. K1883.3
• Hot pepper mixed with flour supplying enemy camp. Thinking they have been poisoned, they beat a retreat. K2351.6.1.1
• Sham doctor prescribes medicine for king's army; they fall ill; invading army, seeing multitudes being carried away in litters, flee, thinking there is a plague. K2368.3
• The fourteen lucky daughters. The husband leaves his wife, who has given birth to fourteen girls, thinking he is persecuted by bad luck because of failure to have a son. On the seashore, the girls find precious stones. The wife, now prosperous, finds her husband among beggars. N231
• Man, thinking it an enemy, flees as sweetheart comes after him in pursuit. N318.1
• Man kills son thinking that he is cutting a branch. N325.1
• Mother kills son thinking him a wild beast. N325.3
• Angry brother kills husband, thinking latter had killed wife (sister) and baby. N342.5
• Criminal accidentally detected: "that is the first" – sham wise man. The sham wise man employed to detect theft is feasted. As the servants enter with food he remarks to his wife, "That is the first" (course). (Or allowed to feast for three days remarks at end of first day "That is the first.") The servants, thinking they are detected, confess. N611.1
• Man scolds his ass and frightens robber away. While the man is absent from his ass the robber steals the man's coat. The ass brays and the man scolds him. The robber thinking he is discovered flees and leaves the coat. N612.1
• Woman thinking lover dead erects cenotaph and mourns before it. T85.1
• Worldly-minded learn to pray by thinking of their usual business. V51.2
• Punishment for profane use of the cross. Drunkard kisses cross, thinking it is a bottle of wine. V86.3
• Blind man strikes woman thinking she is buffalo. X124.1
• Oversight of the thievish tailor. Sews the stolen piece of cloth on the outside of his coat, thinking that it is on the inside. X221
• The devil in the cemetery. A sexton hears thieves in the cemetery cracking nuts and thinks it is the devil cracking bones. With the gouty parson on his back he comes upon the thieves who, thinking it is their companion with the sheep, call out, "Is he fat?" The sexton: "Fat or lean, here he is!" X424
• Lie: weather so hot that corn pops in fields, animals freeze to death thinking it has snowed. X1633.1