Žito and Michal the Baker

King Wenceslas IV is said to have often stopped at the inn At the Blue Pike on the corner of Karlova and Liliová Streets, when he went about the town with his merry companions and with the executioner. He had much sport here and liked to watch the tricks performed for him by the conjurer Žito; all sorts of things were told of him, as they were later told of Faust. Once Žito made himself thirty wisps of straw and conjured out of them thirty pigs, and remarkably fat ones too, as though they had been well fed. He then drove the herd himself to pasture by the river, where the hogs of the rich but miserly baker Michal were grazing. The baker inspected Žito's beasts with pleasure, and when he heard they were for sale he came to terms with the conjurer at once and paid the money over. When they had struck hands, Žito warned him: 'I tell you only this — good little pigs, you see for yourself, and well fed, but they cannot bear water. Remember that!' But the baker did not remember, paid no heed and drove the pigs he had bought into the ford. As soon as they ran into the river they sank, and in their place thirty wisps of straw floated to the surface. The baker waited for the pigs to come up; they did not, and the wisps of worthless straw drifted further and further away. He ran along the bank, shouting and cursing, now calling to the pigs, now pointing at the wisps, that they were floating away and someone should catch them. And away they floated. Enraged at losing so much money and so many pigs, he rushed off after Žito and found him dozing in a tavern. He abused and cursed him, but Žito slept as though there were no shouting at all. The baker grew angry, seized him by the leg, shook him, and when the conjurer did not so much as open his eyes, he gave the leg a jerk. At that he went white as a wall: the leg came away weightless, torn out of its socket. Žito started from his sleep as though stung, shouted and seized the baker, terrified to death, by the throat. And off with him to court. The injury was plain, the innkeeper and the guests testified that the baker had done it, and nothing remained for him but to beg pardon very humbly and to pay a considerable compensation besides. Žito was appeased by this and swept the money into his purse. Then he touched the torn-off leg, set it right in an instant, and without crutches, briskly and with a firm step, walked out of the courtroom as the victor. And the miserly baker was laughed at into the bargain, so much so that a saying came of it: 'He profited like Michal by his pigs.'