Long ago in a busy market city lived a cheerful hunchback who could make anyone smile. His jokes and silly songs brought such delight that even the king invited him to perform at the palace. But our story begins one evening when a kind-hearted tailor and his wife invited the hunchback to share their dinner.
The evening was filled with laughter as the hunchback told stories between bites of fish. But in one careless moment, while laughing at his own joke, he accidentally swallowed a large fish bone. His eyes went wide, he clutched his throat, and before anyone could help, he slumped over, appearing completely lifeless.
The tailor and his wife were beside themselves with worry. “What if they think we did this on purpose?” the tailor fretted, wringing his hands. “We must do something!”
In their panic, they carried the hunchback to a Jewish doctor’s house and propped him by the door. When the doctor came out, he stumbled over the hunchback in the dark. The poor doctor was horrified when the hunchback didn’t move.
“Oh no!” cried the doctor. “They’ll say I killed him!” So he secretly moved the hunchback to the next street, leaving him near a merchant’s shop.
The merchant, returning home late, thought the hunchback was a thief and struck out with his walking stick. When the hunchback fell over without a sound, the merchant’s face went pale. “Murder! They’ll say I’m a murderer!” He quickly carried the hunchback to another neighborhood.
And so it went, through the darkened streets of the city. The supposedly dead hunchback was passed from person to person, each one convinced they had caused his death, each trying to avoid blame. Finally, as morning approached, the last person in this chain of misunderstandings was caught by the night watch.
The case was brought before the king himself. As each person told their part of the story – the tailor, the doctor, the merchant, and others – the king’s expression changed from serious to puzzled to amused. Just then, a clever barber stepped forward.
“Your Majesty,” he said, bowing low, “might I examine the poor fellow?”
The king nodded, and the barber carefully examined the hunchback. With skilled hands, he found the fish bone stuck in the hunchback’s throat. In moments, he had removed it, and to everyone’s amazement, the hunchback sat up, coughing and sputtering.
“Water!” he gasped. “And please, no more fish!”
The entire court burst into laughter, including the king. All those who had thought themselves murderers now realized how foolish their fears had been. The hunchback, once he understood what had happened, thought it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard and immediately began composing a song about his adventures as a “dead man.”
