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Yiddish-Folktales
@Yiddish-Folktales

Reb Hershele and the Goose Leg

One Friday when Reb Hershele Ostropolyer was eight years old, he crept into the family food locker, stole a leg from a roast goose, and ate it. Soon afterward his mother went to the locker and saw that one of the goose’s legs was missing. She knew at once that this was her son’s work, so she gave him a scolding for taking the leg without permission.

“Maybe the goose only had one leg,” said Reb Hershele.

His mother replied, “Where have you ever seen a one-legged bird?”

That evening Reb Hershele went to the synagogue with his father. As they were walking, Reb Hershele saw a stork standing on one leg. “See, Father,” he cried, pointing to the stork. “Mother says there are no one-legged birds.”

“That bird,” replied his father, “habitually stands on one leg; his other leg is hidden beneath him. Watch me drive him off—you’ll see.” The father picked up a stone and threw it at the stork. The bird quickly lowered its other leg and flew away. “So you see that your mother is right.”

“Ah,” said Reb Hershele, “Maybe if you drove the roast goose off, you’d see its other leg.”

* * *

GlossaryReb: The traditional title prefixed to a man’s name; comparable to “Mister” in English.

* * *

AnnotationsTELLER: Tsvi Moyshe (no surname recorded), Podbrodz (Podbrodzie), Poland, (no date recorded)
COLLECTOR: Khaim Lunyevski.
SOURCE: V.A. 30:22.
TALE TYPE: 785A.
COMMENTS: See Schwartzbaum (1968), pp. 56 and 452; also Blum-Dobkin (1977), Holdes (1960), and Epshteyn (1938).

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