SILLY JURA
Once there were two brothers. They were lazy fellows, and thieves into the bargain. They were expected to give a feast. They said to one another: “We haven’t got anything. Wherever shall we find food for the feast?”
So the first said: “I’ll go to our neighbour’s. He has some fine apples, and I’ll pluck some of them.”
The second said: “I’ll go to the shepherd’s. He has some fine rams. I’ll steal a ram from him.”
These two brothers hated the third, and so they abused him: “Silly Jura! You won’t get anything yourself, but you’ll be ready enough to eat what we get.”
So Jura said: “I’ll go to the burgomaster’s and get some nuts.”
In the evening they went their ways. When he had finished plucking the nuts, Jura went into the charnel-house at the back of the church and began to crack the nuts there. The watchmen heard the cracking in the charnel-house, and they thought the place was haunted. As there was no priest in the village (he lived in the next village), they went to the burgomaster and asked him to go with them to the charnel-house, saying that the place was haunted.
The burgomaster said: “I am so ill that I can’t stand on my feet; no doctor can help me.”