Ririro.com - Short Stories

Bellacuccia is an Italian-flavored fairy tale in which a lawyer forms an unlikely bond with a monkey that climbs through his window one afternoon. Rather than driving it away, he welcomes the creature — and discovers it keeps his apartment spotless and cooks his meals with uncanny skill. When a suspicious friar arrives with holy water and a stole, the monkey's terrified reaction reveals that somet...

"The Satyrs" opens with a fairy's curse transforming a young prince and his entire hunting party into half-goat, half-human satyrs after a queen's cold refusal of hospitality. The only remedy: a maiden must agree to marry the prince without knowing who he truly is. For years, the queen fails to find any willing girl — until a duke's daughter, repelled at first but drawn back by irresistible curios...

"The Two Friars" is a sharply comic folk tale in which a crafty friar and his anxious lay brother arrive hungry at a roadside inn after a long day's walk. With nothing but audacity and a well-timed phrase — "Blessed Francesco!" — the friar manipulates the one-eyed innkeeper into serving them a lavish feast, the finest rooms, and a generous breakfast, all without paying a single coin. The story bui...

"The Preface of a Franciscan" follows a quick-witted friar who is robbed of his donkey, saddle, and money by three brigands, then threatened with death if he speaks a word of it. Bound by the threat yet desperate to recover his losses, he finds an inspired solution — weaving his complaint into the sacred Preface of the Mass, addressing God alone. What unfolds is a delicate standoff between cunning...

"Ass or Pig" is a folk tale about a farmer who loses his pig through a rigged dispute between a monastery porter and a scheming father guardian. Burned by their greed and false authority, he hatches a sharp revenge — disguising himself twice to confront the guilty men on their own ground. Each visit delivers both a beating and a pointed moral lesson. The story crackles with dark humour and a satis...

"The Devil Who Took to Himself a Wife" is a darkly comic folk tale in which a devil wins his freedom from Hell, ventures into the human world, and promptly marries a fashionable, sharp-tongued woman. Their union descends into daily quarrels and mutual misery. Desperate for peace, the devil hatches a scheme involving possession and fake cures to buy himself an escape—only to find that no king's bod...

"The Simple Wife" is a comic folk tale in which a daughter, weeping in a wine cellar over the imagined future death of a pope not yet born, sets off a chain of gloriously absurd family grief. When her exasperated suitor marries her anyway, the foolishness only deepens — raw meat is sat upon, a husband's patience snaps, and he sets off to find three strangers more foolish than his in-laws. What he...

"Nina" is a short story that turns on a single word — and a miller's icy nerve. When a greedy landlord threatens to evict a miller over unpaid rent, he offers to cancel the debt and sign over the property forever in exchange for Nina, the miller's daughter. The miller accepts without hesitation. What the landlord receives, however, is not what he expected: Nina is the name of the miller's ancient,...

"The Good Grace of the Hunchback" is a sharp Italian folk tale about Buona Grazia, a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage to a suspicious hunchbacked tailor who whitens her windows and locks her indoors. When a resourceful traveller spots her at a courtyard window, the two devise an audacious escape plan — one that turns the hunchback's own blindness and vanity against him. The story builds...

"How Cajusse Was Married" is a folk tale built on a preposterous wager: can anyone make a famously silent nobleman's daughter utter a single word between midnight and dawn? Cajusse, a man constitutionally incapable of refusing a bet, volunteers without a clear plan. His solution involves a candle, a live frog, and a great deal of crawling across a darkened bedroom floor. The story turns on a singl...

The Chicory-Seller and the Enchanted Princess follows a young Roman market vendor who is drawn to a mysterious empty house, where each night a beautiful woman dances among the dead, trapped by an enchantment for seven years. To free her, he must return for thirty consecutive nights, watch without flinching, and hold her hand through the terrifying dark until dawn. The story builds quiet dread and...

"The Candelabrum" follows a resourceful princess who devises an elaborate escape when her father tries to force her into marriage with a rich but ugly old king. Commissioning a towering golden candelabrum, she hides inside it and is unknowingly sold to a neighbouring kingdom. There, a curious young prince discovers her dining at his table each night and becomes utterly enchanted. The story moves w...

The Dark King is a fairy tale about a poor girl who discovers an underground palace ruled by a mysterious, dark-complexioned king who treats her with quiet kindness. Given every comfort and the freedom of his home — save one forbidden room — she lives peacefully until her jealous sisters twist her loyalty. Manipulated into violence and broken promises, she loses everything and is cast back into po...

Don Giovanni is an Italian folk tale retold by R.H. Busk, set in Rome, where a remorseless nobleman struts through the city unbothered by the murder he has committed. When the skeleton of his victim, the Commendatore, appears in the open Campagna and Don Giovanni cheekily invites it to dinner, the ghost accepts. That night, the uninvited guest arrives at the party and offers Don Giovanni three sol...

"The Penance of San Giuliano" is a haunting legend of prophecy and its terrible fulfilment. Giuliano is sent away from home as a young man after an astrologer foretells he will kill his parents — yet thirty years later, fate closes its trap anyway, when he unknowingly strikes down the pilgrim couple sleeping in his own bed. Devastated, he and his devoted wife choose lives of service: building brid...

"The Pilgrims" follows a family torn apart by a broken vow, a wicked priest's slander, and a brother's fatal rage. A young woman left for dead survives to become a queen, only to face fresh betrayal when a treacherous viceroy destroys her happiness while her husband is at war. Wandering grief-stricken through the wilderness, she encounters a vision of the Madonna before making her way to the shrin...

Santa Verdana tells the story of a merchant's servant girl whose boundless generosity quietly defies all logic — she gives away goods to every beggar who asks, yet the shelves are never truly empty when paying customers arrive. When her master finally demands an explanation, she offers no words, only prayer, and the storerooms fill again before his eyes. As suspicion gives way to wonder, the girl...

"St. Anthony Saves His Father" is a legend in which the saint performs a breathtaking miracle mid-sermon: his father has been condemned to death for a murder he did not commit. Without anyone in the congregation noticing him leave the pulpit, Anthony appears at the scaffold, commands a dead man to speak, and the corpse opens its eyes to declare his father's innocence. The story moves with quiet ur...

"Sant' Antonio and Sora Castitre" retells an Italian folk legend in which the young preacher Sant' Antonio is followed by Castitre, a woman whose admiration has crossed into obsession. Rather than condemning her, Antonio turns his compassion inward — blaming himself for becoming an occasion of sin — and quietly guides her to a convent. Over three days, his brothers pray and watch a spark of light...

"St. Anthony and the Receipt from Hell" follows a poor farmer swindled out of his payment when his landlord dies without issuing a receipt, leaving the farmer at the mercy of the dead man's greedy son. Guided by a mysterious friar, he descends into Hell itself to confront the landlord still hunched over his ledger in torment. The farmer retrieves his proof — but one thoughtless touch of a gleaming...

"Nun Beatrice" tells the story of Sister Beatrice, a convent portress whose vanity and longing for the world finally overcome her vows, and she slips away in secret. In her absence, Our Lady descends from a painted canvas, takes on Beatrice's face and habit, and quietly fills her role — becoming so humble and wise that the community believes Beatrice has transformed into a saint. Meanwhile, the re...

The Pardon of Assisi is a short tale about three saints — Felix, Vincent, and Philip — who travel together to the great pilgrimage at Assisi. When the Pope questions each of them separately about how many souls truly received God's grace that day, their answers quietly reveal something extraordinary: each man lists the other two as among the faithful few, omitting only himself. The story turns on...

"The Dead Man in the Oak-Tree" follows a reckless young man in Rome whose single pious habit — saying a prayer for the dead whenever a coffin passes — sets him apart from his dangerous companions. When they plot against him, he flees, only to encounter a dismembered corpse hanging in an oak tree. He says his prayer out of instinct, and the dead man reassembles, borrows his horse, and rides toward...

"The Dead Man's Letter" opens with a stark contrast: a grieving rich man's son who inherits everything yet neglects his father's soul, and a destitute father who drops his very last coin into a church alms box for souls in Purgatory. That small, selfless act draws a mysterious stranger who hands the poor man a sealed letter — to be delivered to a Count, and to no one else. What the Count reads tur...

"The Procession of Velletri" follows Maria Grazia, a convent servant who sets out alone by moonlight to fetch a priest for a dying nun. In the dark open countryside she encounters a ghostly procession of white-robed figures parting silently to let her pass. Shaken but resolute, she pushes on — and calls out to a passing peasant for company. He never speaks a word, yet walks beside her all the way...