All The Worlds Quarry

There once was a poor robber named Brixham who, seeing an old house in the woods, thought to rob it and, inside one of its rooms, he saw a large chest that was full of gold and jewels but the house belonged to a witch and the room was guarded by the shadow of a cat that, with a loud yowl, leapt off of a wall and onto his back.
Fortunately there was a flickering candlestick nearby and, seizing hold of the candlestick, he stabbed at the living shadow with its flame and, piercing the shadows black heart, made it vanish.
But then no sooner had he left the house with a sack full of her treasure over his shoulder when the witch appeared and, pointing a finger at him, put a curse upon him.
"Anyone who sees you will hate you with a fury and want to kill you", said the witch, "Thus either your life will be the hell of a perpetual fugitive or you will be killed. Either way you will be punished for your crime".
Ofcourse, Brixham running off happily with the sack hadn't believed her but then, after he had returned to his wife and child the curse had started to work; his wife, becoming maddened by the sight of him, lunged at him with a kitchen knife and even his son tried to bite him in the leg.
So Brixham was forced to flee his house and he ran to the house of an old friend who was also a robber.
But the moment his friend saw him, because of the curse, he became his enemy, picking up an axe and attacking him with it.
And so Brixham fled the house of his friend and because he had nowhere else to go he ran into the woods but then a hunter who had been stalking a deer caught sight of him and, because of the witch's curse, began shooting arrows at him.
"This is intolerable", he thought as he ran from the archer, "Wherever I go I am a hunted man".
Thankfully the archer was not a good shot and the man managed to escape him but then he returned to the one place where he believed he could find an answer to his problem, the witch's house.
"Either she lifts this damned curse from me or I shall kill her", he thought.
And as he approached the witches house, she was standing in her doorway laughing.
"How does it feel to be hated by the whole world?", she asked.
Drawing his sword, Brixham charged angrilly towards her but then, at her command, her witches broom leapt up and, whirling round three times, brought its handle down upon his head with a loud crack, knocking him to the ground.
"Ha!", she said, "If you want to fight me you need to fight like a witch".
But Brixham was not deterred and getting to his feet and picking up his sword he charged towards the witch again and, when the broom, whirling round three times tried to strike him again he cut it in two with his sword.
But the two halves of broom only became two brooms and then, whirling round three times, they started attacking him from both left and right, thwacking him over his head or sweeping at his legs so that he was knocked off of his feet.
Then, when Brixham looked dazed and exhausted, the witch commanded his sword to fly into her hand and then, walking slowly towards him, prepared to attack the undefended man with it.
"I will chop off your arms first, I think", she said with an evil smile, "And then your legs".
And, backing slowly away from the witch, Brixham was sure that his heart would soon have a hole in it.
But then, just as the witch was raising the sword to strike him, an arrow, flying past Brixham struck her deep in the heart killing her instantly.
And after seeing her fall to the ground and turn to ashes, Brixham turned round and saw the hunter who had earlier been stalking him holding his bow within his hands.
"Why did you kill her?", he asked the hunter.
"I wasn't aiming at her. I was trying to kill you", said the hunter, "But now I can't remember why I wanted to kill you. Thank goodness I am not a very good shot".
So in the end, the curse that the witch had placed upon the man had saved him and when the witch died the curse was lifted so then Brixham went back to his wife and son who no longer wanted to kill him.
But Brixhams experience had made him look at life differently and as a consequence he gave up his life as a robber and became a devoted father and husband instead and as a consequence of that led a much happier life.