Innocua
Innocence; or, The Stolen Necklace
A pious woman, or a religious pilgrim, arrives at the royal court. One day, the queen leaves an expensive necklace with the pilgrim while she goes to bathe. While the woman prays, a bird (in some versions a magpie) steals the necklace. When the queen returns and finds her necklace is missing, the pilgrim is assumed to be guilty, is beaten and imprisoned. However, one day the king is in the palace gardens, and looks up to see the bird with the necklace (either tucked into the mortar of the roof, or tangled around its claws) and realises their error. The pilgrim is freed, and the king offers her a huge sum of money but she refuses and departs to live a life of seclusion.
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Nishimura notes the following analogues and motifs:
Analogues: Rokudo Jikkyo, 1 (a jewel is stolen by a hawk, and a servant girl is imprisoned as the culprit). Dai Shogon Ronkyo, 63. Konponsetsu Issai Ubu Binaya Zoji, 28 (Taishozo, 24, 345a~b). Jātaka, 92 ‘Mahasara-j.’. Shiefner, Tibetan Tales, 8 ‘Mahaushadha and Viśakhā’. Tekko-roku, 11 ‘Golden spatula’ (A servant girl is blamed and killed for suspected theft. A year later, the 'stolen' object emerges from among the tiles on the roof. The thief seems to be a cat. From Okamoto Kido, Chinese Mysterious Stories, pp. 255-256). ‘The Bird and the Necklace’ in Born Judas, 62 ‘Der Vogel und das Halsband’. Hedâyat, Mysterious Land, 6, ‘The Tale of the Fruit of the Tree of the Difficult Solution’ (pp. 160-163. A necklace is lost while the queen is bathing with her friend’s wife. She is suspected and imprisoned. It turns out to have been taken by a raven.) Reference stories, etc.: Tantrakhyayka, 1.4; Pañcatantra, (Textus simplicior) 1.6 ‘The Ravenous Couple, the Black Snake and the Jackal’; Textus ornatior (Purnabhadra) 1.7; Hitopadesha, 2.9 ‘The cunning Crow’; Kalila and Dimna, 1.5; Anwar-i-Suhaili, 1.11; Johannis de Capua, Directorium Humanae Vitae, 22 ‘Le corbeau et le serpent’; Grimm’s Fairy Tales, KHM17, ‘Die seiße Schlange’ (The queen’s ring is missing, and her vassal, who had access to her chamber, is thought to be the culprit, but an animal’s story leads him to find it).;Saikaku, Seken Munesan’yo, 1.6 ‘Nezumi no Fumitsukai (A mouse messenger)’. Bibliography: Chauvin VIII 20. Landau 33. Minakata Kumagusu, ‘Folklore and Beliefs about Rat’ in Juni-Shi-Ko (The Twelve Chinese Zodiac Sighs), pp. 388-390 in Iwanami Bunko, Vol. 2. Nakatsukasa Tetsuo, The World of Aesop’s Fables, pp. 147-148 (on the story from Pañcatantra in connection with Aesop’s Fables). |
| Critical Literature |
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| Nishimura (2001), Basset (1903), Clouston (1884) |
| Innocua appears in the following versions and secondary versions |
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| This inset story appears in no versions of the database |
| Innocua is narrated in the following occurrences | ||||
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| Innocua appears in the following manuscripts |
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