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.
Fortunatus and His Purse
Once upon a time there lived in the city of Famagosta, in the island of
Cyprus, a rich man called Theodorus. He ought to have been the happiest
person in the whole world, as he had all he could wish for, and a wife
and little son whom he loved dearly; but unluckily, after a short time
he always grew tired of everything, and had to seek new pleasures. When
people are made like this the end is generally the same, and before
Fortunatus (for that was the boy’s name) was ten years old, his father
had spent all his money and had not a farthing left.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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