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Motifs — first 20 of 38
- 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