40 motifs match “witness”  ·  back to the chapters

• Why women are disqualified as witness in court. A1589.1
• Disenchantment as proof of truth. The prodigy convinces judge that witness is speaking truth. D797
• Ghostly chair in cellar jumps up and down on three legs, points with fourth at spot on floor. Witnesses dig up body from under floor. E539.4.1
• Heavenly bodies bear witness for and against man. F961.0.5
• Flail substantiates story of witnessing threshing in heaven. H84.3
• Solomon able to detect truth without evidence of witnesses. J1140.1
• Stone as witness. Farmer will not pay servant wages due. Closing his bargain with the servant he had said: "May this stone be witness." Judge orders stone brought to court. The farmer: "Oh, but the stone is too big (or very far away)". J1141.1.3.1
• Detection of theft by finding bag-repairer. Two men are in a lawsuit and before witnesses seal the documents in a bag to await arrival of the king. One of the men cuts the bag open, changes the documents, and has a repairer sew it up again. On the king's arrival the change is discovered. By having a fine carpet repaired the expert repairer is discovered. Confession follows. J1141.5
• Witness always to answer "No." Thus gets self condemned. J1141.13
• Testimony of witness cleverly discredited. J1151
• Testimony discredited by inducing witness to talk foolishly. J1151.1
• Witness claims the borrowed coat: discredited. Trickster summoned to court on Jew's complaint refuses to go unless he has a new coat: Jew lends him his. In court the trickster says that the Jew is a liar: "He will even claim that I am wearing his coat." The Jew does so and no one believes him. J1151.2
• Testimony gradually weakened. Witness agrees to the following facts in succession: that the person relating the facts may have been in anger, that he may have misunderstood, that he may not have heard it at all. J1151.3
• Witness cannot speak language of accusation: discredited. Two parrots taught accusation of mistress in a particular dialect. They know nothing more of the language. (Cf. G1154.1.) J1152
• Separate examination of witnesses discredits testimony. J1153
• Susanna and the elders: separate examination of witnesses. Testimony as to exact circumstances of her deed does not agree. Witnesses discredited. J1153.1
• Witness discredited by inability to tell details. (Cf. J1153.1.) J1154
• Witnesses to make image of diamond they claim to have seen. J1154.2
• False witnesses cannot describe stolen jewel. J1154.3
• Bribed witnesses nonplussed when judge asks wrong question. J1157
• Witness claims not to have seen crime. J1158
• Witness says that dust storm blew and shut his eyes so that he did not see. J1158.1
• Story told to discover thief. Judge tells story of the lady, her husband, her lover, and the robbers (H1552.1). Which was the most generous? Witness says that robber was. This shows that he has robber's point of view. J1177
• Plaintiff in court beats thief since he had not warned him ahead of time to have witnesses to robbery. Judge has refused to inquire for lack of witnesses. J1191.6
• Priest preaches about bishop's amour. Bishop has fined priest for incontinence. Priest hides and witnesses amorous intrigue between bishop and abbess, hearing bishop refer to the abbess's charms in biblical similes. Priest incorporates overheard references in his introduction to the Mass and is asked for an explanation. Bishop returns his fine. J1211.1.1
• Robbed man blames thief for not warning him so that he could have witnesses to the theft. J2223.1
• The judge wants to know how the theft was committed. The witness tells. The judge: "You are wonderful; I have tried it thirty times and succeeded only once." J2372
• Deceptive bargain: first to say "Good morning." The first to give the greeting shall have the disputed property. The trickster is early on the scene and witnesses the other's adultery. He may keep the property without saying good morning. K176
• Thief condemned when witnesses of theft are able to find the stolen goods. K424
• Concealed confederate as unjust witness. A rascal who has hidden with a simple man a treasure found by them carries it away secretly, trying to have his associate condemned on the witness of a tree in which his father is concealed. K451.3
• Captors give captive respite in order to witness alleged marvel. K551.28
• Opposing witnesses's pockets filled with dung. Discredited. K1291
• The animal in the chest. The husband has locked the surprised paramour in a chest while he fetches his family as witness of his wife's unfaithfulness. She frees the lover, substitutes an animal, and discountenances the husband. (Cf. K1542, K1555, K1566, K1574.) K1515
• Husband transformed to goat must witness wife's adultery. The devil has let him see his wife's unfaithfulness in this way. K1531
• "No argument good without a witness." Lawyer's client therefore refuses payment of fee. K1655.1
• Cat witness to betrothal punishes violator. Kills the man's son when he has married a different woman. M205.1.2
• The Cranes of Ibycus. Murdered man calls on cranes, the only witnesses of the murder, to avenge him. The cranes follow the murderer and point him out. N271.3
• Friend gives false witness to set free his accused friend. P315.2
• At a hanging the witnesses are bigger thieves than the culprit. (Cf. U10.) U119.1.2
• Blind, lame, and deaf as witnesses in court. X141