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Motifs
- All questions to be answered, "I don't know". A youth is so advised by his horse. C495.1
- All questions to be answered "Thanks". Youth is so advised by old woman helper. C495.3
- Dead must be answered in whispers. E545.23
- Counterquestions. Riddles answered by a question that reduces the riddle to an absurdity. H571
- Woman's question to her husband disguised as woman, how many men she had in one night. This is properly understood as, how many helpers he had, and answered by lifting ten fingers. H582.3
- Question answered by absurd counterquestion. J1291
- Theological questions answered by propounding simple questions in science. Where was God before he made heaven and earth? and the like answered by "Why a louse bite raises a blister, a flee bite raises a swelling, and a gnat bite is unnoticeable?" If you cannot answer such simple questions how can you pry into God's secrets. J1291.2
- Trumpeter's false defense. A trumpeter captured pleads that he did not fight. Answered: "You may not fight, but you encourage your men to do so." J1465
- Dream answered by dream. Priests misinterpret raja's dream and get his horses. Trickster advises raja to announce dream demanding cauterization of the priests. They return horses. J1527
- [First Edition (Additions and Corrections): K216.3. Devil's riddles answered: man is freed.] K216.3[1st ed.]
- The fee used up before the main question is reached. A man with an unsolved question seeks the help of a wit. The latter refuses to answer unless paid. He takes small fees for each easy question leading up to the principal question. Before reaching that point the fee is exhausted, and the question remains unanswered. K265
- Hateful or lovely child to be born first? Childless parents' prayer answered: they are to have two children, one hateful, one lovely. Choice as to which is to come first. T548.1.1
- Prayers answered – miscellaneous. V59