In the mist-covered glens of Scotland, there once lived a widow and her only son, a boy whose sharp mind often led him into trouble. From childhood, he was fascinated not by honest work, but by cunning and adventure. He dreamed of becoming a thief, not from hunger but from the thrill of challenge.
One day, he told his mother outright, “I will be a thief, and the cleverest in all Scotland.”
The widow, heartbroken, clutched her apron and said, “My son, a thief’s path ends only one way, you will hang from a bridge.”
But the lad only smiled. “Then I will outsmart the hangman himself,” he boasted.
Soon he left home and sought apprenticeship under a master thief known across the Highlands as the Black Gallows Bird, a man as cunning as he was cruel.
The Halloween Heist
Autumn came, bringing cold mist and the ghostly festival of Halloween. On that night, when the veil between worlds was said to be thin, the Black Gallows Bird led his new apprentice toward a farmer’s land.
“The beasts here are the finest in the glen,” he whispered. “Go and bring me his best bull. If you can do that, you will earn my trust.”
The Shifty Lad nodded. He crept to the barn under the moon’s pale glow, mimicking the voice of a local herdsman. Hearing what he thought was a friendly call, the farmer opened his door. In that instant, the lad darted inside, locked the farmer out, and led the bull away.
By dawn, the master and pupil were far from the farm, laughing over their success. “You’ll make your name yet,” said the Black Gallows Bird. “Scotland will whisper of your deeds.”
Gold and Silver for the Taking
Days later, they set their sights on a nobleman’s manor. “This night,” the master said, “we steal from the rich.”
The Shifty Lad climbed through a window and entered the treasure room. Moonlight shimmered over piles of gold and silver, and his heart raced. With careful hands he filled two sacks, passing them down to his master. When a watchman came, the lad hid behind a curtain, silent as a shadow, until the danger passed.
When they fled back to the hills, the master laughed aloud. “You are the luckiest rogue alive! But remember, boy, luck and wit can turn against you as swiftly as the wind.”
The lad shrugged, proud of his success. Yet deep inside, his mother’s prophecy echoed like a whisper.
The Ball and the Princess
Not long after, a royal decree announced a grand ball, where the princess would choose her husband. Princes and nobles came from every corner of the land. Curious and proud, the Shifty Lad dressed in stolen finery and joined the guests, hiding his humble birth beneath silk and gold.
The king’s advisers devised a secret test: before the dance, the princess’s maid marked certain guests’ hands with small black dots. Whosoever bore the same mark as the princess would win her hand.
The Shifty Lad, ever observant, noticed this trick. When no one watched, he cleverly switched his mark with another man’s.
When the princess revealed her hand, the lad’s mark matched hers perfectly. Bound by royal word, the king declared, “This man shall be my daughter’s husband!”
And so, through wit and chance, the Shifty Lad became prince by marriage.
The Prophecy Fulfilled
For a time, the thief-turned-prince lived in luxury. Yet he often wondered how long his fortune would last.
One bright afternoon, as he walked with his bride over a stone bridge, she teased him. “My husband,” she said playfully, “tell me truly, what was your trade before we met?”
The Shifty Lad hesitated, then admitted with a sly grin, “I was a thief, my lady, and a good one too.”
The princess laughed nervously. “Then perhaps you will hang from a bridge yet!”
The words froze him in place. He remembered his mother’s warning. Before he could reply, cries of “Fire! Fire in the hall!” rang from the city below. The princess, startled, turned her head and loosened the silk handkerchief she held around his wrist.
In that instant, the cloth slipped, and so did he.
The Shifty Lad fell from the bridge, and the prophecy was fulfilled.
Moral Lesson
“The Shifty Lad, the Widow’s Son” teaches that cleverness and fortune may win temporary glory, but fate cannot be tricked. Pride and deceit lead only where truth foretells. Wisdom lies not in escaping destiny, but in living rightly before it finds you.
Knowledge Check
- Who is the main character in “The Shifty Lad, the Widow’s Son”?
A clever Scottish youth who becomes a master thief. - What prophecy does his mother give him?
That he will hang, or die, on a bridge. - Who trains the Shifty Lad in his trade?
The Black Gallows Bird, a feared master thief of Scotland. - How does he win the princess’s hand?
By secretly switching marks during a royal ball. - What event fulfills the prophecy?
The princess accidentally lets go of his handkerchief on a bridge, and he falls to his death. - What is the story’s main moral lesson?
Cleverness may deceive others but never fate; honesty and humility are safer paths.
Source: Adapted from “The Tale of the Shifty Lad, the Widow’s Son,” in Popular Tales of the West Highlands collected by John Francis Campbell; reprinted in Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales edited by Sir George Douglas (1901).
Cultural Origin: Scotland (Scottish folklore)
