Ririro.com - Short Stories

Silver-rod is a quiet nature sketch about the soft, moonlit afterbloom of the goldenrod, when blazing yellow fades to silver. The narrator stirs a tufted stalk and watches a cloud of down drift away, carrying next year's seeds. Alongside ironweed and life-everlasting, the faded plants wear their seedy fortunes with grace. On a chilly November day, the mood is serene and contemplative, and a faint sense of peace and patience lingers in the air.

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Filagranata is a fairy tale about a girl raised by a witch as punishment for her mother's parsley theft, locked in a doorless tower with only pigeons for company. When a travelling prince discovers her window and learns to call up her golden hair, a daring escape begins — but an innocent goodnight kiss erases every memory of love and promise. With quiet courage and a baker's ingenuity, Filagranata must find a way to make the king remember what his heart once swore before another woman takes her place.

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"The Pot of Rue" opens with the youngest daughter of a merchant making her father promise to bring her a single, peculiar gift: a pot of rue. When he forgets it, the ship cannot move until he turns back — and fulfilling the promise costs him a terrifying audience with a king who punishes the request with death. But the real danger begins at home, when jealous sisters destroy the pot and sever the daughter's secret bond with a prince. Alone and resourceful, she disguises herself, slays ogres, and saves the man she loves — on her own terms.

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"The Munificence of Prince Borghese" opens in Rome, where a proud servant is dismissed from the most generous household in the city — and finds that reputation has shut every other door against him. As months pass, his family loses furniture, clothing, and finally food itself. Driven to a breaking point no decent man reaches lightly, he steps out of the shadows with a knife. What he takes, and what Prince Borghese does in response, sets in motion an act of extraordinary generosity that carries a sting of irony in its final terms.

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"Giacinta Marescotti" tells the story of a proud, hot-tempered noblewoman who rails against being sent to a convent while her quieter sister is married off — exactly the opposite of what both had wanted. Giacinta transplants her aristocratic lifestyle behind convent walls, treating the other sisters with barely disguised contempt. When a bishop pauses outside her lavish cell and utters just two words — "a smell" — something in Giacinta cracks open, setting her on a slow, genuine path toward humility, sacrifice, and eventually sainthood.

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"The Beautiful Englishwoman" opens in Rome, where a wealthy, accomplished woman has vowed to marry only the man who matches her ideal portrait exactly. When a sharp-witted suitor turns her fastidiousness back on her with equal wit, an unexpected love blooms — and quickly becomes a secret marriage. For thirteen years the couple live devotedly in a hidden villa, until a titled father's ruthless interference sets in motion a chain of violence that leaves no one untouched.

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"The Princess and the Satyr" tells the story of a young princess who, after becoming lost in the forest during a hunt, is taken by a selvaggio—a half-man, half-goat creature from the deep woods—who loves her fiercely though she can never love him in return. Ten years pass. When she finally sees a ship and her chance at escape, the selvaggio confronts her with devastating choices across the water. The story builds to a crescendo of loss and will, leaving its darkest moments unspoken.

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"The Foolish Woman" is a wry folk tale in which a husband, exasperated by his wife's absurd blunders, sets off to find three people in the world more foolish than she is — or return alone. What he discovers along the road is a princess baffled by a hat brim, a man who has knotted a rope into uselessness, and a widow swindled out of her firewood by a charming stranger. Each encounter is funnier and more unsettling than the last, and the husband's certainty slowly turns into something more complicated.

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"The King of Portugal" opens on a frail monarch whose vulnerability invites a scheming prince to seize power through calculated cruelty — imprisoning the old king on bread and water, waiting for nature to do his work. What baffles the prince is that the king grows stronger each visit from his daughter, not weaker. Guards watch, searches are made, and still no explanation comes — until it does. At the story's heart is a young woman's desperate, extraordinary act of devotion, and the unexpected grace that follows.

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"The Old Miser" delivers a sharp, darkly comic portrait of greed meeting its match. A clever young woman targets a notorious miser, convincing him she lives on air alone — thin enough to be believed, shrewd enough to exploit his obsession with cost. Each visit to his home, she walks away richer, with coins stuck to pitch-coated soles. The scheme unfolds with deadpan precision until a single gleaming coin, dangling mid-step during Carnival, forces her hand — and the truth tumbles out with devastating consequences for the miser.

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Doctor Grillo is a biting fable about a resentful servant who steals his master's identity—his gown, his name, and his reputation—and sets himself up as a celebrated physician in a distant land. When two lucky cures cement the impostor's fame, the real Doctor Grillo arrives to reclaim his name, only to find that truth is no match for a crowd that has already made up its mind. The story builds toward a darkly ironic trial in a dying girl's sickroom, where chaos and delay seal one man's fate entirely.

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"The Happy Couple" is a sharp fable about a devoted husband and wife whose unshakeable love draws the devil's envy. He enlists a witch to drive a wedge between them — planting a dark rumour in the husband's ear, and tricking the wife into standing over her sleeping husband with a razor. When he wakes to find her there, blade in hand, the moment teeters on the edge of disaster. Everything depends on whether two people will speak honestly in the dark.

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"What Happened in the Room of a Hotel" opens with a count and countess whose bond rests on a solemn mutual promise never to think ill of each other. When the countess arranges a playful prank involving her brother — a stranger to her husband — a single glimpse through a window is enough to shatter that promise. The count vanishes into grief; the countess follows on foot, city to country, until chance and exhaustion deliver them both to the same roadside inn, and the same small room.

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"The Wooing of Sor Cassandro" drops readers into the streets of Rome's Panico quarter, where a stiff, powdered-wig gentleman decides to court a frying-shop girl half his age. Determined to prove himself worthy, Sor Cassandro dons a white apron and learns the trade — and surprises everyone by excelling at it. Gifts follow: earrings, a necklace, fifty scudi. But no amount of effort or money can win the girl's heart, and her furious rejection leaves him the laughing stock of the entire neighbourhood.

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"The Marriage of Signor Cajusse" is a short comic tale of love, deception, and quick thinking. When a farmer refuses to let his daughter marry a charming but nearly penniless count, the bride devises an audacious scheme: she funds a tour of the Campagna, bribing tenants and servants to greet him as the wealthy landowner "Signor Cajusse." The ruse works beautifully — but once the money runs out, the couple must face the truth, and it falls to the bride once again to find a way forward.

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The Daughter of Count Lattanzio is a sharp, comic tale of wit triumphing over parental control. Count Lattanzio locks his daughter away to stop her from marrying the lawyer she loves, but while he tends his vineyard, a small band of disguised conspirators puts his orders to the ultimate test. One by one — a bootmaker, a tailor, and a very authoritative "lawyer" — they talk their way past a flustered servant, each arrival bringing the secret wedding one step closer to completion before the count walks back through his own front door.

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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 something far stranger than an animal has been living under the lawyer's roof. The story builds quiet suspense around what the monkey truly is and what the exorcism will unleash.

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"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 curiosity, finds herself face to face with a desperate creature whose pleading eyes make cruelty feel impossible.

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"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 builds toward a punchline delivered at a safe distance, where cheek triumphs over conscience.

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"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 piety and outlaw logic, resolved with a perfectly straight face.

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"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 satisfying sense of justice slowly, stubbornly reclaimed.

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"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 body, no royal court, and not even the depths of Hell itself can offer refuge from his wife's formidable voice.

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"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 discovers on the road is both surprising and quietly satisfying.

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"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, scrawny donkey — and the signed documents prove nothing different.

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"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 through a chain of cool-headed deceptions, culminating in a courtroom twist hinging on a single spoken sentence.

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"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 single line spoken from under the bedcovers — and the chain of consequences that one sentence sets in motion.

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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 genuine tenderness as an ordinary man faces something far beyond his ordinary life.

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"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 with dry wit and playful logic, building toward a resolution where the princess's own ingenuity earns her the match she deserves.

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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 poverty. Yet three hairs the king pressed into her hand at parting may hold one last chance to undo the damage her betrayal has caused.

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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 solemn chances to repent — each met with laughter and contempt. The stakes rise with every refusal, driving toward a thunderous, irreversible end.

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"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 bridges, sheltering the homeless, and tending every pilgrim who comes to their door, waiting for a sign that God has heard them.

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"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 shrine of St. James — where fate draws every shattered life in the story toward an extraordinary reckoning in a single room.

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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 retreats into solitude beside a church, sealing herself inside a small cell with nothing but a hole in the wall through which to hear Mass each day.

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"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 urgency, balancing courtroom injustice against miraculous, unshakeable calm.

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"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 grow into a blazing ascent. The story unfolds with striking tenderness, building toward a deathbed scene of startling simplicity and grace.

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"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 table costs him dearly, and the letter the landlord sends back to the living world carries a warning no son can easily ignore.

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"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 real Beatrice wanders, ashamed and unable to confess, until a chance encounter forces her to face what has been done in her name.

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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 this single, elegant act of self-erasure — and what it reveals about who among the crowd genuinely carried the sorrow required for grace to take hold.

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"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 Rome — straight into an ambush meant for the young man himself.

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"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 turns his world upside down and forces him to reckon with what true generosity really costs.

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