The Partnership Of The Thief And The Liar

: The Grey Fairy Book

There was once upon a time a thief, who, being out of a job, was

wandering by himself up and down the seashore. As he walked he

passed a man who was standing still, looking at the waves.



‘I wonder,' said the thief, addressing the stranger, ‘if you have

ever seen a stone swimming?'



‘Most certainly I have,' replied the other man, ‘and, what is

more, I saw the same stone jump out of the
water and fly through

the air.'



‘This is capital,' replied the thief. ‘You and I must go into

partnership. We shall certainly make our fortunes. Let us start

together for the palace of the king of the neighbouring country.

When we get there, I will go into his presence alone, and will

tell him the most startling thing I can invent. Then you must

follow and back up my lie.'



Having agreed to do this, they set out on their travels. After

several days' journeying, they reached the town where the king's

palace was, and here they parted for a few hours, while the thief

sought an interview with the king, and begged his majesty to give

him a glass of beer.



‘That is impossible,' said the king, ‘as this year there has been

a failure of all the crops, and of the hops and the vines; so we

have neither wine nor beer in the whole kingdom.'



‘How extraordinary!' answered the thief. ‘I have just come from a

country where the crops were so fine that I saw twelve barrels of

beer made out of one branch of hops.'



‘I bet you three hundred florins that is not true,' answered the

king.



‘And I bet you three hundred florins it is true,' replied the

thief.



Then each staked his three hundred florins, and the king said he

would decide the question by sending a servant into that country

to see if it was true.



So the servant set out on horseback, and on the way he met a man,

and he asked him whence he came. And the man told him that he

came from the self-same country to which the servant was at that

moment bound.



‘If that is the case,' said the servant, ‘you can tell me how

high the hops grow in your country, and how many barrels of beer

can be brewed from one branch?'



‘I can't tell you that,' answered the man, ‘but I happened to be

present when the hops were being gathered in, and I saw that it

took three men with axes three days to cut down one branch.'



Then the servant thought that he might save himself a long

journey; so he gave the man ten florins, and told him he must

repeat to the king what he had just told him. And when they got

back to the palace, they came together into the king's presence.



And the king asked him: ‘Well, is it true about the hops?'



‘Yes, sire, it is,' answered the servant; ‘and here is a man I

have brought with me from the country to confirm the tale.'



So the king paid the thief the three hundred florins; and the

partners once more set out together in search of adventures. As

they journeyed, the thief said to his comrade: ‘I will now go to

another king, and will tell him something still more startling;

and you must follow and back up my lie, and we shall get some

money out of him; just see if we don't.'



When they reached the next kingdom, the thief presented himself

to the king, and requested him to give him a cauliflower. And the

king answered: ‘Owing to a blight among the vegetables we have no

cauliflower.'



‘That is strange,' answered the thief. ‘I have just come from a

country where it grows so well that one head of cauliflower

filled twelve water-tubs.'



‘I don't believe it,' answered the king.



‘I bet you six hundred florins it is true,' replied the thief.



‘And I bet you six hundred florins it is not true,' answered the

king. And he sent for a servant, and ordered him to start at once

for the country whence the thief had come, to find out if his

story of the cauliflower was true. On his journey the servant met

with a man. Stopping his horse he asked him where he came from,

and the man replied that he came from the country to which the

other was travelling.



‘If that is the case,' said the servant, ‘you can tell me to what

size cauliflower grows in your country? Is it so large that one

head fills twelve water-tubs?'



‘I have not seen that,' answered the man. ‘But I saw twelve

waggons, drawn by twelve horses, carrying one head of cauliflower

to the market.'



And the servant answered: ‘Here are ten florins for you, my man,

for you have saved me a long journey. Come with me now, and tell

the king what you have just told me.'



‘All right,' said the man, and they went together to the palace;

and when the king asked the servant if he had found out the truth

about the cauliflower, the servant replied: ‘Sire, all that you

heard was perfectly true; here is a man from the country who will

tell you so.'



So the king had to pay the thief the six hundred florins. And the

two partners set out once more on their travels, with their nine

hundred florins. When they reached the country of the

neighbouring king, the thief entered the royal presence, and

began conversation by asking if his majesty knew that in an

adjacent kingdom there was a town with a church steeple on which

a bird had alighted, and that the steeple was so high, and the

bird's beak so long, that it had pecked the stars till some of

them fell out of the sky.



‘I don't believe it,' said the king.



‘Nevertheless I am prepared to bet twelve hundred florins that it

is true,' answered the thief.



‘And I bet twelve hundred florins that it is a lie,' replied the

king. And he straightway sent a servant into the neighbouring

country to find out the truth.



As he rode, the servant met a man coming in the opposite

direction. So he hailed him and asked him where he came from. And

the man replied that he came out of the very town to which the

man was bound. Then the servant asked him if the story they had

heard about the bird with the long beak was true.



‘I don't know about that,' answered the man, ‘as I have never

seen the bird; but I once saw twelve men shoving all their might

and main with brooms to push a monster egg into a cellar.'



‘That is capital,' answered the servant, presenting the man with

ten florins. ‘Come and tell your tale to the king, and you will

save me a long journey.'



So, when the story was repeated to the king, there was nothing

for him to do but to pay the thief the twelve hundred florins.



Then the two partners set out again with their ill- gotten gains,

which they proceeded to divide into two equal shares; but the

thief kept back three of the florins that belonged to the liar's

half of the booty. Shortly afterwards they each married, and

settled down in homes of their own with their wives. One day the

liar discovered that he had been done out of three florins by his

partner, so he went to his house and demanded them from him.



‘Come next Saturday, and I will give them to you,' answered the

thief. But as he had no intention of giving the liar the money,

when Saturday morning came he stretched himself out stiff and

stark upon the bed, and told his wife she was to say he was dead.

So the wife rubbed her eyes with an onion, and when the liar

appeared at the door, she met him in tears, and told him that as

her husband was dead he could not be paid the three florins.



But the liar, who knew his partner's tricks, instantly suspected

the truth, and said: ‘As he has not paid me, I will pay him out

with three good lashes of my riding whip.'



At these words the thief sprang to his feet, and, appearing at

the door, promised his partner that if he would return the

following Saturday he would pay him. So the liar went away

satisfied with this promise.



But when Saturday morning came the thief got up early and hid

himself under a truss of hay in the hay- loft.



When the liar appeared to demand his three florins, the wife met

him with tears in her eyes, and told him that her husband was

dead.



‘Where have you buried him?' asked the liar.



‘In the hay-loft,' answered the wife.



‘Then I will go there, and take away some hay in payment of his

debt,' said the liar. And proceeding to the hay-loft, he began to

toss about the hay with a pitchfork, prodding it into the trusses

of hay, till, in terror of his life, the thief crept out and

promised his partner to pay him the three florins on the

following Saturday.



When the day came he got up at sunrise, and going down into the

crypt of a neighbouring chapel, stretched himself out quite still

and stiff in an old stone coffin. But the liar, who was quite as

clever as his partner, very soon bethought him of the crypt, and

set out for the chapel, confident that he would shortly discover

the hiding-place of his friend. He had just entered the crypt,

and his eyes were not yet accustomed to the darkness, when he

heard the sound of whispering at the grated windows. Listening

intently, he overheard the plotting of a band of robbers, who had

brought their treasure to the crypt, meaning to hide it there,

while they set out on fresh adventures. All the time they were

speaking they were removing the bars from the window, and in

another minute they would all have entered the crypt, and

discovered the liar. Quick as thought he wound his mantle round

him and placed himself, standing stiff and erect, in a niche in

the wall, so that in the dim light he looked just like an old

stone statue. As soon as the robbers entered the crypt, they set

about the work of dividing their treasure. Now, there were twelve

robbers, but by mistake the chief of the band divided the gold

into thirteen heaps. When he saw his mistake he said they had not

time to count it all over again, but that the thirteenth heap

should belong to whoever among them could strike off the head of

the old stone statue in the niche with one stroke. With these

words he took up an axe, and approached the niche where the liar

was standing. But, just as he had waved the axe over his head

ready to strike, a voice was heard from the stone coffin saying,

in sepulchral tones: ‘Clear out of this, or the dead will arise

from their coffins, and the statues will descend from the walls,

and you will be driven out more dead than alive.' And with a

bound the thief jumped out of his coffin and the liar from his

niche, and the robbers were so terrified that they ran

helter-skelter out of the crypt, leaving all their gold behind

them, and vowing that they would never put foot inside the

haunted place again. So the partners divided the gold between

them, and carried it to their homes; and history tells us no more

about them.



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