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Motifs
- Stolen magic object stolen back by helpful cat and dog. They steal the ring from the thief's mouth. D882.1.1
- Food sticks in thief's throat and betrays him. (Cf. D1030.) D1318.7.1.2
- 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
- Thief's money scales borrowed. A man buries gold and a thief steals it. The owner detects the criminal. He takes some money to the thief and borrows money scales "to weigh so as to bury with the other". The thief decides that he is detected and hastens to return the stolen money. J1141.6
- Thief's corpse carried through street to see who will weep for him. J1142.4
- Thief detected by building straw fire so that smoke escapes through thief's entrance. The secret hole into the building is thus discovered and the thief caught. J1143
- Magistrate detects thief's complicity by associating cut hand with companion's severed head. J1149.8
- Thief's excuse: the big wind. Vegetable thief is caught in a garden. Owner: How did you get into the garden? A wind blew me in. How were the vegetables uprooted? If the wind is strong enough to blow me in, it can uproot them. How did they get into your bag? That is what I was just wondering. J1391.1
- Thief followed home. A thief ransacks a man's house and departs. The man gathers together the rest of his belongings and tracks the thief. Comes to the thief's door. Thief: "What do you want with me?" "What, isn't this the house we set out for?" J1392.1
- Numskull as thief's assistant wakens owner. Pleads successfully that he was trying to awaken the household and prevent theft. J2136.5.4
- Grain-thief's wagon falls into ditch: duped owner helps him. The thief makes the owner believe that the grain belongs to the thief. K405.1
- Thief's confederate cuts off own arm to furnish alibi for family's grief. (Previously he had severed father's or brother's head to escape detection.) K407.2.1
- Quartered thief's body sewed together to escape detection. K414
- Ear of stolen animal protrudes from thief's mouth. (Cf. Q212.) Q552.4
Tale types