“confession”

Motifs — first 20 of 53

Weather changed on confession of deed. D2140.3
Devil is made impotent by confession. G303.16.9
The devil has two books – one book small for sins of clerics, erased by confession; the other large for unconfessed sins of lay folks. G303.24.1.9
Pope tests women's disobedience: not to look into box. (Cf. H1554.1.) They do so and are not allowed to hear confession. H1557.4
Confession obtained by a ruse. J1141
Confession of debt secured by having defendant dispute as to whether cat was present when debt was made. J1141.1.11
Confession induced by bringing an unjust action against accused. False message to thief's wife to send the stolen jewel case as bribe to the judge. She does. J1141.4
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
Confession obtained by making thief fear for his life. (Told that crossbow would shoot guilty person as he passed before it.) J1141.10
"Then I woke up": man discredits his confession by declaring it all a dream. J1155
Confession discredited by claim to be notorious liar. (Cf. X905.) J1155.1
Pardon in return for confession. J1198
King promises thieves pardon for confession: pleased with their cleverness. J1198.1
Will lunch with Christ. Priest tells condemned man after confession that he will dine with Christ that evening. Mule that carries him to scaffold goes very fast and criminal says, "At this rate I shall lunch with Christ." J1261.3
Choosing his confessor. Ruler explains: "I want a lying priest so that if he repeats my confession he will not be believed." J1263.6
Confession made easy. Peasant sees priest at work in the fields. Tells him he wishes to confess. He is told to put money in the box and take the same penance as the year before. J1263.7
Four men's mistress. A husband disguises as a priest to hear his wife's confession. She says that she has been mistress of a servant, a knight, a fool, and a priest; i.e., her husband when he was her servant, and later her knight. He had then been a fool for demanding her confession, and was a priest because he had heard it. J1545.2
The penny baked in the wafer. A peasant always puts a bad penny into the offering. The priest has a penny baked in a wafer and gives it to the peasant at communion. The peasant, unable to swallow it, thinks that he is possessed of the devil. The priest asks whether he has ever done wrong with a penny, secures confession and a pledge of reform. J1582.1
All sins since the birth of Christ. A stupid man at confession says, "I confess myself guilty of all sins that I have committed since Christ's birth." "Are you so old?" "Yes, and I have a brother who is three years older than I." J1743.1
A pebble for each sin. A man cannot remember the number of his sins. The priest has him put a pebble in a sack for each of his sins. He comes to confession with three large sacks of pebbles. J2466.1

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Tale types