School: Cornamon (roll number 13926)

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   “John's father was working on a gentleman's estate and this lad used to bring his meals to his father and anything he could steal or get 'handy' he always took it.”

   

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   passing and the thief told the apprentice to go out and steal the sheep he was driving. "How am I going to take it out of his hands" said the boy.
   "Well" said John "I'll make a bet of £5 that I'll take the sheep" The thief agreed and off went the lad to take the sheep.
   He ran off through the fields and took off one of his new shoes and dirtied it very much and then laid it in the butcher's path and he ran on and left the clean shoe a few hundred yards further on the path and then he hid.
   Along came the butcher and saw the dirty shoe and he gave it a kick and said to himself "Only for you are dirty you'd be a great fit for a boy of mine but one shoe isn't much good" so he went on.
   Later on he came across the clean shoe and he looked at it and saw that it was the match of the other one so he said to himself "If I had only the luck of taking the other shoe, dirty and all as it was, I'd have a fine pair." Then he tied the sheep to a tree and went back for the dirty shoe and when John got him out of

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Folktales index

   AT1525: The Master Thief

   Language

   English

   Informant

   Mrs Gracie Mawn

   Gender

   Female