Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K14D — Imaginary crime, (ATU 910A).
Source data for narratives and traditions is drawn from Berezkin’s Analytical Catalogue. If you use this data, please acknowledge and link to it: Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.
Summary of motif
OverviewTesting his wife (household member, acquaintance), a man pretends to have committed a crime or performs incomprehensible actions that could be interpreted as a crime. Usually, his wife (friend) betrays him, and he presents evidence of his innocence.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior.
K14 has 7 other sub-motifs
RelatedK14. A person receives or buys simple advice, the meaning of which is initially unclear (travel with a companion, do not skip breakfast, etc.) and either follows it, achieving success, or violates it, getting into trouble.
K14a. The antagonist orders the killing of the first person to arrive at the agreed place in the morning. The hero is accidentally delayed, and the antagonist himself or his wife or son are killed.
K14b. A man is advised not to do anything until he is expressly asked to do so. He unwisely offers to let someone use his knife and is subsequently accused of a crime.
K14c. Returning after a long absence and seeing signs that there is another man in the house, a man thinks that his wife has a lover, but does not rush to act and convinces himself that it is his own son or his wife's relative.
k14c1. A man who has gone away to work sends his wife a pomegranate, unaware of its value. His wife finds treasures in the pomegranate.
K14d. Testing his wife (household member, acquaintance), a man pretends to have committed a crime or performs incomprehensible actions that could be interpreted as a crime. Usually, his wife (friend) betrays him, and he presents evidence of his innocence.
K14e. The sons do not care for their elderly father (rarely: the daughter-in-law does not care for her mother-in-law). He pretends to be hiding something. The sons believe that these are valuables that their father will leave them, and they begin to care for him.
K14F. After his father's death, the son consistently violates his father's instructions. Having preserved material evidence of what happened, he presents it to those gathered, proving his father's rightness and/or his wife's wrongness.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| L40B | 97.15% | To make the character come closer, absurd actions are performed in front of him. The character does not understand the deception and comes closer to explain how to act correctly. |
| M39E | 97.13% | When reviewing the dispute, the judge asks about the secondary circumstances of the case. The offender is exposed by showing that he knows (or, on the contrary, does not know) about them. |
| K102A | 97.05% | A man orders the killing of a young man's sister, wife or mother. The young man does not allow such an order to be carried out, and then repents of this. |
| M197A | 96.54% | A man took a cauldron (pot) and returned it with a small cauldron. The owner of the cauldron agreed that the big cauldron gave birth to a small one. The next time, the man did not return the cauldron: he died. The owner had to agree. |
| K27Z2A1 | 96.46% | Noticing that a woman is pregnant, her relatives or in-laws accuse her of promiscuity, because, according to their calculations, she could not have conceived by her husband or fiancé. After severe trials, the woman meets again the father of the boy she gave birth to. |
| M39E1 | 95.57% | A person appropriates property. The owner or his assistant puts the kidnapper in such a position that he is forced to return everything (usually the victim kidnaps the child of the deceiver). {Apparently, all references in Ting 1978 do not refer to Chinese, but to Tibetans; Uther 2004 refers to the Dagestan text in Levin 1978, No. 52, but it is not clear which group we are talking about; there is also a deaf reference to the “Code of Japanese fairy tales - Tsukan”, it needs to be checked}. |
| M198 | 95.39% | In the house of the khan (judge, king, etc.), three brothers (rarely one person) determine that the food and drink served to them smell of dead flesh, dog, goat, etc., and (or that) the host who receives them is illegitimate or of low birth. After questioning the servants and his mother, the host is convinced that the brothers are right. |
| K120A | 95.39% | A man is going to marry his sister (often it turns out that she is the only one who meets the requirements for a bride). Usually, the girl manages to avoid such a marriage. |
| M157C | 95.18% | To put a character in an awkward position, others present him with chicken eggs that they have prepared in advance, which the character does not have. (Usually, he crows and says that there are hens around him and only he is a rooster). |
| K154A | 95.14% | By solving a riddle, a boy or young man (rarely a girl) exposes the daughter, wife or assistants of an authoritative character: the daughter or wife has a lover; the assistant is plotting a conspiracy. |
See the 100 most similar distributions →
Map of motif dispersal
DistributionDrag the map to pan, use the scroll wheel to zoom — choose a texture or projection below
Traditions
36 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 36 traditions: Yemen, Mehri; Harsusi, Jibbali (Shahri, Shauri), Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Arabs of Iraq, Iraqi, Arabs of Egypt, Berbers of Morocco and adjacent parts of Algeria, Arabs of Sudan, Sudanese, Dinka, Atuot, Nuer, Somali, Amhara; Zay, Harari; Silte, Gogot, Khmer, Viet, Muong, Hindi-speaking peoples and casts (incl. Teli, Parahiya; incl. Chhattisgarhi) of Northern and West-Central India, Spain, Spaniards, Maltese, Sicily, Sicilians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Estonians, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Karachays, Balkar, Avar, Andi, Akhvakh, Tats, Georgians, Kazakh, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvash, Udmurt, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Mustang, Arabs of Kuwait, Bahrein, Qatar, Emirates, Oman,, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Bahrain, Yemen, Russian Federation
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