The Sleeping with God's Daughters story type (ATU 1807B)

The pattern

The Sleeping with God's Daughters story type (ATU 1807B) is a comedic folktale centered on literal-minded evasion, where a transgressor outsmarts a religious authority by fulfilling the strict letter of a penance while completely undoing its spirit. In this story shape—classified within anecdotes and jokes about clergymen—a confessor commands a man to undergo four weeks of strict self-denial: no meat, no liquor, no soft feather beds, and no intimacy with women. The clever protagonist complies by traveling to a convent, where he dines on meat and wine and sleeps in a bed of down alongside the nuns. When he reports his compliance, explaining that he merely stayed with "God's daughters," the confessor realizes he has been entirely outwitted through legalistic wordplay.

How cultures tell it

Documented across 9 distinct regional cultures, this tale type illustrates a global fondness for stories where ordinary tricksters use semantic loopholes against rigid institutional authorities. Rather than relying on magic or physical force, the protagonist wins through hyper-literal interpretation. Like animal trickster narratives such as The Wolf is Caught because of his Singing story type (ATU 100) or The Cat as She-Fox's Husband story type (ATU 103A), where smaller characters manipulate expectations to gain the upper hand, ATU 1807B turns a somber disciplinary attempt into a platform for comedic victory.

Motifs that define it

The central thematic engine of ATU 1807B is motif J1161.5, which denotes a literal penance where a clever trickster outwits a high religious authority figure, such as a pope or confessor. Under motif J1161.5, the authority establishes precise restrictions—prohibiting wine, comfortable beds, or illicit companionship—only for the protagonist to find a holy sanctuary where those exact items are recontextualized under pious names. The humor thrives on the gap between moral intent and legalistic syntax. This clever reframing of rules mirrors tales like The War between Wild Animals and Domestic Animals story type (ATU 103), where formal proclamations and boundaries break down under clever, unexpected redefinitions.

Reading it with kids

Because ATU 1807B developed within historical satirical jokes regarding religious figures (cataloged in the traditional index range of 1725–1849), historical versions feature mature themes of clerical hypocrisy and sexual innuendo that require thoughtful adaptation for children. When sharing this story shape with young audiences, focus on the core mechanism: the humor of taking rules entirely literally. Parents and teachers can easily pivot the story from adult penances to everyday scenarios, such as a mischievous student given overly strict instructions who finds a harmless, hilarious loophole that satisfies the exact wording while completely surprising the rule-maker.