The Lebukken Expert (Fairy Tale)

There is a kind of creature called a Lebukken; a type of mischievous sprite , who is particularly famous for being uncatchable.

Catch a Lebukken in a bag, they say, and he will turn himself into fire and burn a hole in it; catch him in a box and he’ll turn to a fine mist and creep out through the smallest crack.

Only one person has ever, according to legend, been able to catch and hold a Lebukken; a young man named Tomasz.

A long time ago, you see, there was a kingdom that was plagued by a Lebukken; the creature would work mischief on everyone in the kingdom including the king and so the King decreed that whoever could capture the Lebukken would marry his daughter.

But though many brave and clever men tried to capture the Lebukken in all manner of traps and nets and cages, every time the Lebukken would change its shape or use some other trick to escape.

However, one day the young man,Tomasz came to see the king.

“Your majesty”, he said, “I will trap the Lebukken for you if you will give me all the things that I need to accomplish the task”.

The king was desperate and so he agreed and then Tomasz asked the royal craftsmen to make  six  small boxes; each out of a different material; one was to be made of wood; one of glass; one of copper; one of Iron; one of stone and one of steel and inside each one was to be sealed an almond cake which, he explained, was the Lebukkens favourite food.

And when the boxes were made Tomasz left them outside the kings palace overnight and the next morning when he returned to inspect them, all but one of the boxes had been broken open and its contents removed; the wooden one and the glass one had simply been smashed to pieces; the iron one and the steel one had both been melted as by some incredible heat but the stone one, though it had claw marks all over it was still intact.

Now Tomasz went excitedly to the kings craftsmen and told them to make a large open box with a lid out of stone and to fill it with almond cakes and the next night he placed it outside the Kings palace but this time he hid behind a rock, holding the stone lid, and watched and waited and, before long the Lebukken, smelling the scent of the almond cakes with his long nose came sniffing about and then, seeing the open stone box filled with Almond cakes he dived into it greedily and began to gobble up the cakes.

The moment it did so, however, Tomasz rushed over to the box and slammed the stone lid down on top of it, trapping the Lebukken inside.

The Lebukken was as strong as ten men and it took all of the power in Tomasz’s limbs to keep the lid upon the box but he managed to carry it to the King.

“Your Majesty!”, he said, “I have caught the Lebukken”.

And the next day in the palace chapel Tomasz and the Kings lovely daughter were married.

However, after some time, two years to be exact, of being locked up in the box, the Lebukken thought of a way of escaping.

There was no crack in the box large enough for it to squeeze out of even when it turned itself to smoke or drops of water but it could fit its thoughts through a very tiny crack about the size of a hair and so it slipped doubtful thoughts out of the box and soon its doubts were spreading round the palace.

“Perhaps there’s nothing in the box”, people started to think, “How do we know that he really caught it? We didn’t see him do it. Perhaps it’s an empty box and he just tricked the king, that Rogue Tomasz”.

And after a while the doubts even reached the King and he himself began to doubt.

“The box must be opened”, said the king, “To see if there is really a Lebukken inside and if there is not, I will have Tomasz executed”.

And so Tomasz was arrested and held in a prison cell.

“You will stay there until we have determined whether or not the box really has a Lebukken in it”, said the king.

“But your Majesty”, pleaded Tomasz, “If you open the box, even a crack, then the Lebukken will escape”.

However the king did not want to listen, “You’re trying to frighten me so that I won’t open the box”, said the king, “And find out that you have tricked me, that’s all”.

But just then Tomasz thought of a clever way that they could open the box and trap the Lebukken again once it had escaped.

And the next the day, upon Tomasz’s instructions, another stone box was made, one that looked large enough for a man to fit inside but with a very tiny hole in the top and it was placed beside the original stone box.

Then the first stone box was prized open, just enough to peer inside.

The moment that it was, however, the Lebukken turned itself into smoke and poured out of the tiny crack then, turning back into its original form, it said angrilly, “ I shall have vengeance upon all of you but first I shall have my revenge upon the one that trapped me in the box, where is he?”.

“He is in that other stone box”, said the king, shivering in his royal boots, “He was so afraid of you escaping that he hid himself in there knowing that you cannot open it”.

Now the Lebukken was very irritated that he could not open the second stone box but then he noticed the tiny hole in the top and, chuckling with an evil glee and declaring “Why I shall come in there and get you, you scoundrel”, the monster turned itself into smoke again and poured into the box through the tiny hole.

The moment that it was inside the box however; Tomasz, who had not really been inside the box but had been watching from behind a pillar, rushed forwards and sealed up the hole with a tiny stone stopper preventing the Lebukken from getting out.

After that day nobody ever doubted that there was a Lebukken in the box and Tomasz was made into a prince and lived, with the kings beautiful daughter, happily ever after.