The Credulous Fiend

A fiend haunted a princess every evening, unable to carry her off only because she protected herself with a magic circle. One night, overhearing her complain to a friend about "the one who torments me every evening at twilight," the fiend mistook this for the name of a rival — someone called Twilight, more powerful than himself.

Anxious to learn what this rival looked like, the fiend took the form of a horse and slipped into the royal stables to observe. That very night, a horse-thief crept in, chose the finest-looking horse — the disguised fiend — and rode off on him.

Every tug of the reins and crack of the whip convinced the terrified fiend that "Twilight" himself was punishing him. He bolted in panic, while the thief, equally alarmed that this horse obeyed no rein, clung on for dear life until he could grab a tree branch and escape.

A monkey friend of the fiend, watching from the branches, mocked him for running from his natural prey — a mere man — and the fiend, embarrassed, turned back to attack. But the thief, now furious rather than afraid, seized the monkey's dangling tail in his teeth and bit down hard, and the monkey — mistaking this for an even more terrifying force — froze in silent terror rather than uttering a sound.

Neither the fiend nor the monkey had faced anything more than an ordinary frightened man — but a single overheard word, misunderstood, had been enough to make each of them imagine a danger far greater than the truth.