The Flying Dutchman and Other Folktales from the Netherlands

Copyright © 2008 by Theo Meder

One day, money had disappeared that a while before had been lying on the table. No strangers had visited the farm, so it had to be an inside job. The farmer wanted to know who did it, but neither wife nor children, maid nor farmhand knew anything about it.

So he went to the schoolteacher, because he was a man of resources. He was an old man with a grey beard, who had read many books and had lots of experience of life.

When the schoolteacher came to the farm, he didn't ask a thing. He just said, "Now, let's all go to the front room."

Over there was a table with a large tablecloth.

"Now we all have to sit on our knees and stick our heads under the table," the schoolteacher said.

So it happened. After a moment of silence, he asked, "Are we all here?"

"Yes," everyone answered.

"The thief too?"

"Yes!" said Sievert. He was the farmhand.

This is a version of the folktale type VDK 926E, Dief ertoe gebracht zichzelf te verraden (thief provoked to betray himself), more specifically a variant of the third kind, Alle hoofden onder de tafel (all heads under the table). The tale was collected by Klaas ter Laan (1871-1963), probably in the first half of the twentieth century, in the province of Groningen. The translation is based on Eelke de Jong and Hans Sleutelaar, Sprookjes van de Lage Landen (Amsterdam, 1996), pp. 172-173.