The most curious legends about five famous rulers. The most terrible urban legends that turned out to be true Popular legends of the world

Incredible Facts

People have been making up legends and legends ever since they discovered communication. Despite some true facts, most of the terrible legends still remain fiction. However, chilling urban legends can often turn out to be true.

Sometimes turning a tragic event into a legend helps people cope with grief, as well as protect the younger generation from realizing the reality of what is happening.

In this article, we have collected for you the creepiest urban legends based on real events.

City's legends

Faceless Charlie

Legend:

Children living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania love to tell the story of faceless Charlie, also known as the Green Man. Charlie is believed to have been a factory worker disfigured in a horrific accident, some claiming it was the acid, others the power line.

Some versions of the story claim that this incident caused his skin to turn green, but all versions have in common that Charlie's face was so disfigured that it lost all features. According to legend, he wanders in the dark through oppressive places, such as, for example, the old abandoned railway tunnel in South Park, also known as the Green Man Tunnel.

Over the years, curious teenagers have visited this tunnel looking for signs of Faceless Charlie. Many claimed that they felt a slight electric shock and had trouble starting the car after calling Faceless. Others said they saw a slight glow of his green skin in a tunnel or at night by a country road.

Reality:

Unfortunately, in this tragic story lies the lion's share of truth. The legend of Faceless Charlie appeared due to the fact that he had a very real prototype - Raymond Robinson. In 1919, Robinson, who was 8 years old at the time, was playing with a friend near a bridge with high voltage tram tracks.

Raymond suffered horrific injuries after he accidentally touched a power line. As a result of the impact, he lost his nose, both eyes and an arm, but survived. He spent the rest of his long life - 74 years - withdrawing into himself, and went out for a walk only at night, but he reciprocated the friendly appeals of people to him.

killer in the attic

Legend:

This chilling story appeared many years ago. It tells about a family unaware that a dangerous intruder has settled in their house, secretly living in their attic for weeks. They lose or move things, suspicious objects appear in the garbage. They joke sweetly about the brownie until a cruel killer living near them kills them in their sleep.

The worst thing about this legend is that, it would seem, it is quite possible - and it really is.

Reality:

This story began in March 1922 on a German farm called Hinterkaifeck. The owner, Andreas Gruber, began to notice that things were periodically disappearing in the house, lying in the wrong places. His family heard footsteps in the house at night, and Andreas himself, on the eve of the tragedy, noticed other people's footprints in the snow, but after examining the house and territory, he did not find anyone.

At the end of March, the man who left these traces came down from the attic and brutally dealt with six inhabitants of the farm - the owner, his wife, their daughter, her two children 2 and 7 years old and their maid with the help of a hoe. Their bodies were found only 4 days later, and it turned out that at that time someone was looking after the livestock. The identity of the offender has not yet been established.

legends

night doctors

Legend:

Stories of night doctors in the past were often heard from slave owners who used them to intimidate their slaves so they wouldn't run away. The essence of the legend is that there were some doctors who operated at night, kidnapping black workers to use them in their terrible experiments.

Night doctors caught people on the streets and took them to their medical facilities to torture, kill, dismember and cut out their organs.

Reality:

This creepy story has a very real continuation. Throughout the 19th century, grave robbery was a big problem, and the African American population could not protect either their deceased relatives or themselves. In addition, medical students did perform operations on living members of the African American community.

In 1932, the Alabama State Health Service and Tuskegee University launched a program to study syphilis. As terrible as it sounds, 600 African-American men were taken to perform the experiment. Of these, 399 already had syphilis and 201 did not.

They were given free food and a guarantee to protect their grave after death, but the program lost funding, but the participants were not told about their terrible illness. Researchers sought to study the mechanisms of the disease and continued to monitor patients. They were told that they were being treated for a non-serious blood disease.

The patients did not know they had syphilis or that they needed penicillin to treat it. The scientists refused to give any information about the drugs or the condition of their patients.

This story, spiced up with slave owners riding horses in white clothes at night, has long instilled fear and awe of the legend in black people.

Alice murders

Legend:

This is a fairly young urban legend from Japan. It says that in the period from 1999 to 2005 in Japan there was a series of brutal murders. The bodies of the victims were mutilated, their limbs were torn off, and a distinctive feature of all the murders was that next to each corpse, the name "Alice" was written in the blood of the victim.

The police also found one playing card at each of the creepy crime scenes. The first victim was found in the forest, and parts of her body were strung on the branches of various trees. The second victim had his vocal cords torn out. The third victim, a teenage girl, had her skin severely burned, her mouth cut open, her eyes torn out, and a crown sewn to her head. The last victims of the killer were two little twins - they were given lethal injections while they slept.

Police allegedly arrested a man in 2005 who was found wearing a jacket from one of the victims, but they were unable to link him to any of the murders. The man claimed that the jacket had been given to him.

Reality:

In fact, there have never been such murders in Japan. However, shortly before the appearance of this legend, a maniac was operating in Spain, who was called the Card Killer. In 2003, the entire police force in Madrid was sent to capture the man responsible for 6 brutal murders and 3 assassinations. Each time he left a playing card on the body of the murdered. The authorities were at a loss - there was no connection between the victims or an obvious motive.

All that was known was that they were dealing with a psychopath who chose his victims at random. He would never have been caught if one day he himself had not come to the police with a confession. The card killer turned out to be Alfredo Galan Sotillo. During the trial, Alfredo changed his testimony several times, retracting his confession and claiming that the Nazis forced him to confess to the murders. Despite this, the killer was sentenced to 142 years in prison.

scary urban legends

The Legend of Cropsy

Legend:

Among the people of Staten Island, the legend of Corpsi has been around for decades. It tells the story of a crazed axe-wielding killer who escaped from an old hospital and hides in the tunnels beneath the abandoned Willbrook Public School. He comes out of hiding at night and preys on children: some say that he has a hook for a hand, and some that he wields an ax. The weapon does not matter to him, the result is important to him - to lure the child into the ruins of the old school and cut him to pieces.

Reality:

As it turned out, the crazy killer was quite real. Andre Rand was directly responsible for the kidnapping of two children. He worked as a janitor at this very school until it closed. There, children with disabilities were kept in terrible conditions: they were beaten, insulted, they had neither normal food nor clothes. The homeless Rand returned to the tunnels under the school to continue the atrocities that had previously reigned in this school.

Children began to go missing, and the body of 12-year-old Jennifer Schweiger was found in the woods near Rand's camp. He was charged with her murder of Jennifer and another missing child. It has not been fully proven that these murders were his doing, but the police managed to prove that he was involved in the abductions of children. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison. The whereabouts of the other missing children have not yet been disclosed.

Babysitter and killer on the second floor

Legend:

The story of the babysitter and the killer hiding upstairs is undoubtedly an urban horror classic. According to this legend, a girl who works as a nanny for a wealthy family gets a creepy call. In almost all versions of the story, the caller asks the babysitter if she has checked on the children. The nanny calls the police, where it turns out that they are calling from the house where she is with the children. According to most versions, all three are found brutally murdered.

Reality:

The reason for the spread of this terrible story was the very real murder of 12-year-old girl Janet Christman, who looked after three-year-old Gregory Romak. In March 1950, when this brutal crime took place, there was a terrible thunderstorm in Columbia, Missouri. Janet had just put the child to bed when an unknown person entered the house and brutally raped and killed the girl.

The main suspects for a long time included a certain Robert Muller, who is also accused of another murder. Unfortunately, the evidence against Mueller was only circumstantial, but he was nevertheless accused of killing Janet. Some time later, he sued for wrongful detention, the charges were dropped, and he left town for good. After his departure, such crimes ceased.

Legends based on real events

rabbit man

Legend:

The story about the rabbit man appeared around the 70s of the last century and, like many urban legends, has several versions. The most common of these speaks of events that occurred in 1904, when the local psychiatric institution in Clifton, Virginia, closes and it becomes necessary to transfer patients to a new building. According to the classics of the genre, transport with patients gets into a serious accident, most of them die, and the survivors break free. They are all successfully brought back... except for one - Douglas Griffin, sent to a psychiatric hospital for killing his family on Easter Sunday.

Shortly after his escape, exhausted and mutilated carcasses of rabbits appear in the trees in the area. Some time later, the locals discover the body of Marcus Wallster hanging from the ceiling of an underpass under a railroad track in the same terrible state as the rabbits before it. The police tried to drive the madman into a corner, but he, while running away, was hit by a train. Now his restless ghost roams the area and still hangs the carcasses of rabbits on the trees.

Some even claim to have seen the rabbit-man in person, standing in the shadow of the underpass. The locals believe that whoever dares to enter the crossing on Halloween night will be found dead the next morning.

Reality:

Luckily, this creepy legend is just a legend, and there really was no crazy killer. There was no Douglas Griffin, no Marcus Wallster. However, in Fairfax County, there lived a man who was unhealthy obsessed with rabbits and terrorized the locals in the 70s of the last century.

He rushed at passers-by and pursued them with a small ax in his hands. Some claimed that he once threw a hatchet through the window of a passing car. One incident occurred in the house of one of the local residents. The madman took an ax with a long handle and began to chop down the porch of the unfortunate man's house. He escaped before the arrival of the police and no one still knows who he is and what motivated him.

Hook

Legend:

The legend of the Hook is perhaps the most common of all urban horror stories. It has several versions, each scarier than the previous one, and the most famous one is about a couple making love in a parked car. The radio is suddenly interrupted to tell the listeners the terrible news - a cruel killer has escaped, wielding a hook, and now he is hiding in the very park where the lovers are.

The girl, having heard the news, asks her beloved to leave from there as soon as possible. The guy is annoyed, but they are going, and he takes her home. When they arrive, they find a bloody hook hanging from the door handle on the passenger side.

Reality:

Whether the couple makes it home without incident, or the girl is horrified to hear her lover's fingers touch the roof of the car as his bloodied body hangs from a tree, the story didn't come about by accident. In the late 1940s, a small and peaceful town was rocked by a series of horrific murders. The culprit was dubbed the Moonlight Killer, but was never found.

At night, he killed young people in parked cars. Frightened residents were returning home long before the curfew announced by the authorities. The bloody crimes stopped as quickly as they started, and the Moon Slayer vanished into the night.

dog boy

Legend:

In the city of Quitman, Arkansas, the legend of the Dog Boy has long circulated. Locals claimed that it tells the story of an evil and very cruel little boy who loved to torture defenseless animals, and then completely switched to his parents. After the death of the boy, his ghost lived in the house where he killed his parents, in the form of a half-man, half-dog, instilling horror and fear in people. People often notice his outline in the room where he kept the animals he abused.

Witnesses describe him as a large furry creature resembling a dog with glowing cat eyes. Those who pass by his house notice that he is watching them closely from the window of the house, and some even claim that an incomprehensible creature on all fours was chasing them down the street.

Reality:

Once upon a time, an angry and cruel boy named Gerald Bettis lived in an old house at 65 Mulberry Street. His favorite pastime was catching neighbor's animals. He had a separate room where he brought the unfortunate. There he tortured them and brutally killed them. Over time, his cruelty began to manifest itself in relation to elderly parents. He was huge and overweight.

They say that it was he who killed his father, but no one has ever been able to prove that he provoked him to fall down the stairs. After his father's death, he continued to abuse his mother, keeping her locked up and starved to the sea. Law enforcement agencies intervened and they managed to save the unfortunate mother. Some time later, she testified against him for growing and using marijuana. He was sent to prison, where he died of an overdose.

Legends that turned out to be true

Black water

Legend:

This rather famous story begins with an ordinary family buying a new house. They are doing great until they turn on the faucet, which pours black, muddy, foul-smelling water. After checking the water tank, they discover a rotting body. It is not known when this legend was born, but a similar story really took place.

Reality:

Eliza Lam's body was found in a water tank at the Cecile Hotel in Los Angeles, California in 2013. Her death is still a mystery, and the killer has not been found. By the time the guests complained about the tainted water and her body was found, it had been decomposing in the tank for a week.

The creepiest legends

Bloody Mary

Legend:

According to an eerie folk belief about Bloody Mary, in order to invoke her evil spirit, one must light candles, turn off the lights, and whisper her name while gazing into a mirror. When she arrives, she can do a range of harmless things, as well as terrible things.

Reality:

According to psychologists, if you stare in the mirror for a long time, you can see how someone else is looking at you in response, so most likely the legend of Bloody Mary did not appear out of nowhere. The Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo calls this phenomenon "the illusion of an alien face."

According to Caputo, if you stare long and hard at your reflection in a mirror, your field of vision will begin to distort, and the outlines and boundaries will become blurred - your face will no longer look the same. The same illusion manifests itself when a person sees images and silhouettes in inanimate objects.

Akhtamar (Armenian legend).
Long ago, in ancient times, King Artashez had a beautiful daughter named Tamar. Tamar's eyes shone like stars in the night, and her skin turned white like snow on the mountains. Her laughter gurgled and rang like water from a spring. The fame of her beauty went everywhere. And the king of Media sent matchmakers to the king Artashez, and the king of Syria, and many kings and princes. And King Artashez began to fear that someone would come for the beauty with the war or the evil vishap would kidnap the girl before he decided who to give his daughter as a wife.
And then the king ordered to build a golden palace for his daughter on an island in the middle of Lake Van, which has long been called the "Nairi Sea", so great it is. And he gave her only women and girls as servants, so that no one would disturb the peace of the beauty. But the king did not know, just as other fathers before him did not know, and other fathers after him would not know, that Tamar's heart was no longer free. And she gave it not to the king and not to the prince, but to the poor Azat, who had nothing in the world except beauty, strength and courage. Who remembers now what his name was? And Tamar managed to exchange with the young man a look and a word, an oath and a kiss.
But now the waters of Van lie between the lovers.
Tamar knew that, by order of her father, guards were watching day and night to see if a boat was sailing from the shore to the forbidden island. Her lover knew this too. And one evening, wandering in anguish along the coast of Van, he saw a distant fire on the island. Small as a spark, he trembled in the darkness, as if trying to say something. And looking into the distance, the young man whispered:
Distant bonfire, do you send me your light?
Aren't you the beauties dear hello?
And the light, as if answering him, flared brighter.
Then the young man realized that his beloved was calling him. If you swim across the lake at nightfall, not a single guard will notice the swimmer. The fire on the shore will serve as a beacon so as not to stray in the dark.
And the lover threw himself into the water and swam into the distant light, to where the beautiful Tamar was waiting for him.
For a long time he swam in the cold dark waters, but the scarlet flower of fire inspired courage in his heart.
And only the bashful sister of the sun Lusin, looking out from behind the clouds from the dark sky, was a witness to the meeting of lovers.
They spent the night together, and in the morning the young man again set off on his return journey.
So they began to meet every night. In the evening, Tamar made a fire on the shore so that her lover could see where to swim. And the light of the flame served the young man as a talisman against the dark waters that open at night the gates to the underworlds inhabited by water spirits hostile to man.
Who remembers now how long or short the lovers managed to keep their secret?
But one day the royal servant saw the young man in the morning returning from the lake. His wet hair was matted and water dripped from it, and his happy face looked tired. And the servant suspected the truth.
And that same evening, shortly before dusk, the servant hid behind a rock on the shore and waited. And he saw how a distant fire was lit on the island, and he heard a slight splash with which a swimmer entered the water.
The servant looked out for everything and hurried to the king in the morning.
King Artashez was furiously angry. The king was angry that his daughter dared to fall in love, and even more angry that she fell in love not with one of the powerful kings who asked for her hand, but with a poor Azat!
And the king ordered his servants to be ready at the shore with a fast boat. And when the darkness began to fall, the king's people swam to the island. When they sailed more than half the way, a red fire flower bloomed on the island. And the servants of the king leaned on the oars, in a hurry.
Coming ashore, they saw the beautiful Tamar, dressed in clothes embroidered with gold, smeared with fragrant oils. From under her multi-colored cap-cap, curls as black as agate fell to her shoulders. The girl sat on a carpet spread on the shore, and fed the fire from her hands with sprigs of magic juniper. And in her smiling eyes, as in the dark waters of Van, small fires burned.
Seeing the uninvited guests, the girl jumped to her feet in fright and exclaimed:
You servants of the father! Kill me!
I pray for one thing - do not put out the fire!
And the royal servants were glad to take pity on the beauty, but they feared the wrath of Artashez. Roughly they seized the girl and dragged her away from the fire, into the golden palace. But first they let her see how the fire, trampled and scattered by coarse boots, perished.
Tamar wept bitterly, escaping from the hands of the guards, and the death of fire seemed to her the death of her beloved.
So it was. There was a young man in the middle of the path when the light that had beckoned him went out. And the dark waters pulled him into the depths, filling his soul with cold and fear. Before him lay darkness and he did not know where to swim in the darkness.
For a long time he struggled with the black will of the water spirits. Every time the head of an exhausted swimmer emerged from the water, his gaze pleadingly searched for a red firefly in the darkness. But he did not find it, and again he swam at random, and the water spirits circled him, leading him astray. And finally the young man was exhausted.
"Ah, Tamar!" he whispered, emerging from the water for the last time. Why didn't you save the fire of our love? Did it really happen to me to sink into the dark water, and not fall on the battlefield, as it should be for a warrior!? Ah, Tamar, what an unkind death! He wanted to say that, but he couldn't. Only one thing he had the strength to exclaim: "Ah, Tamar!"
"Ah, Tamar!" - echoed - the voice of the kaji, the spirits of the wind, and carried over the waters of Van. "Ah, Tamar!"
And the king ordered the beautiful Tamar to be imprisoned forever in her palace.
In grief and sorrow, until the end of her days, she mourned her beloved, without removing the black scarf from her loose hair.
Many years have passed since then - everyone remembers their bitter love.
And the island on Lake Van has been called Akhtamar ever since.

Oh, interesting legends and parables!

One day, little Rybka heard from someone a story that there is an Ocean, a beautiful, majestic, powerful, fantastic place, and she became so eager to go there, to see everything with her own eyes, that this actually became the goal, the meaning of her life. And only The fish grew up, immediately started to swim, to look for the same Ocean. For a long, long time, the Fish swam, until finally, to the question: “How far is it to the Ocean?” They answered her: “Darling, you are in it. Here it is around you! “
“Fu, nonsense,” Rybka grimaced, “there’s only water around me, and I’m looking for the Ocean ...
Moral: sometimes in pursuit of some "ideals" we do not notice the obvious things!!!

And do you believe?







Believer Baby: No, no! I don’t know exactly what our life will look like after giving birth, but in any case, we will see mom and she will take care of us.
Unbelieving baby: Mom? Do you believe in mom? And where is she?
Believing baby: She is everywhere around us, we abide in her and thanks to her we move and live, without her we simply cannot exist.
Unbelieving baby: Complete nonsense! I didn't see any mother, and therefore it is obvious that she simply does not exist.
Believer Child: I can't agree with you. After all, sometimes, when everything around is quiet, you can hear how she sings, and feel how she strokes our world. I firmly believe that our real life will begin only after childbirth. And do you believe?

And do you believe?
Two babies are talking in the belly of a pregnant woman. One of them is a believer, the other is a non-believer Unbelieving baby: Do you believe in life after childbirth?
Believer Baby: Yes, of course. Everyone understands that life after childbirth exists. We are here to become strong enough and ready for what comes next.
Unbelieving Baby: That's stupid! There can be no life after childbirth! Can you imagine what such a life could look like?
Believer Baby: I don't know all the details, but I believe that there will be more light and that we may be able to walk and eat with our own mouths.
Unbelieving baby: What nonsense! It is impossible to walk and eat with your mouth! It's totally funny! We have an umbilical cord that feeds us. You know, I want to tell you: it is impossible for there to be life after childbirth, because our life - the umbilical cord - is already too short.
Believing baby: I'm sure it's possible. Everything will just be a little different. It can be imagined.
Unbelieving baby: But no one has ever returned from there! Life just ends with childbirth. And in general, life is one big suffering in the dark.

THE PRICE OF TIME
The story is actually with subtext: instead of dad, there can be mom, and instead of work, the Internet, and the phone, and .... everyone has their own!
Let's not repeat the mistakes of others
Once a man came home late from work, tired and shaky as always, and saw that his five-year-old son was waiting for him at the door.
- Dad, can I ask you something?
- Of course, what happened?
- Dad, how much do you get?
- That is none of your business! - the father was indignant. - And then, why do you need it?
- I just want to know. Please, tell me, how much do you get per hour?
- Well, actually, 500. And what?
- Dad, - the son looked at him from the bottom up with very serious eyes. - Dad, can you borrow 300 for me?
"You only asked so I could give you money for some stupid toy?" he shouted. - Immediately march to your room and go to bed! .. You can’t be such an egoist! I work all day, I'm terribly tired, and you're acting so stupid.
The kid quietly went to his room and closed the door behind him. And his father continued to stand at the door and get angry at the requests of his son. How dare he ask me about my salary, then to ask for money?
But after some time, he calmed down and began to reason sensibly: Maybe he really needs to buy something very important. To hell with them, with three hundred, after all, he has never asked me for money at all. When he entered the nursery, his son was already in bed.
Are you awake, son? - he asked.
- No, dad. I'm just lying down, - the boy answered.
“I think I answered you too rudely,” said the father. - I had a hard day, and I just broke. I'm sorry. Here, keep the money you asked for.
The boy sat up in bed and smiled.
- Oh, daddy, thanks! he exclaimed happily.
Then he reached under the pillow and pulled out a few more crumpled banknotes. His father, seeing that the child already had money, got angry again. And the kid put all the money together and carefully counted the bills, and then looked at his father again.
Why did you ask for money if you already have it? he muttered.
Because I didn't have enough. But now I just have enough, - answered the child.
- Dad, there are exactly five hundred. Can I buy one hour of your time? Please come home from work early tomorrow, I want you to have dinner with us.

BE A MOM
We were having lunch when my daughter casually mentioned that she and her husband were thinking about "starting a full-fledged family."
"We're doing an opinion poll here," she said jokingly. - Do you think I should have a baby?
"This will change your life," I said, trying not to let my emotions show.
“I know,” she replied. - And you won’t sleep on weekends, and you won’t really go on vacation.
But that was not at all what I had in mind. I looked at my daughter, trying to formulate my words more clearly. I wanted her to understand something that no prenatal class would teach her.
I wanted to tell her that the physical wounds of childbirth would heal very quickly, but motherhood would give her such a bleeding emotional wound that it would never heal. I wanted to warn her that in the future she would never be able to read a newspaper without asking herself: “What if this happened to my child?” That every plane crash, every fire will haunt her. That when she looks at photographs of children dying of hunger, she will think that there is nothing worse in the world than the death of your child.
I looked at her manicured nails and stylish suit and thought that no matter how exquisite she was, motherhood would lower her to the primitive level of a she-bear protecting her cub. That the alarmed cry of "Mom!" will make her give up everything without regret - from a soufflé to the best crystal glass.
I felt like I should warn her that no matter how many years she spent on her job, her career would suffer significantly after the birth of a child. She can hire a nanny, but one day she will go to a business important meeting, but she will think about the sweet smell of a child's head. And it will take all her willpower not to run home just to find out that her baby is all right.
I wanted my daughter to know that the trivial everyday problems would never be trivial to her again. That a five-year-old boy's desire to go to the men's room at McDonald's would be a huge dilemma. That there, among rattling trays and screaming children, issues of independence and gender will stand on one side of the scale, and the fear that there, in the toilet, there may be a rapist of minors, on the other.
Looking at my attractive daughter, I wanted to tell her that she can lose the weight she gained during pregnancy, but she will never be able to shed motherhood and become the same. That her life, so important to her now, will no longer be so important after the birth of a child. That she will forget about herself at the moment when her offspring must be saved, and that she will learn to hope for fulfillment - oh no! not your dream! - the dreams of their children.
I wanted her to know that a c-section scar or stretch marks would be her badge of honor. That her relationship with her husband would change and not at all in the way she thinks. I would like her to understand how much you can love a man who carefully sprinkles powder on your child and who never refuses to play with him. I think she will learn what it is like to fall in love again for a reason that now seems to her completely unromantic.
I wanted my daughter to be able to feel the connection between all the women on earth who have tried to stop wars, crime and drunk driving.
I wanted to describe to my daughter the excitement a mother gets when she sees her child learning to ride a bike. I wanted to capture for her the laughter of a baby touching the soft fur of a puppy or kitten for the first time. I wanted her to feel a joy so intense that it could hurt.
My daughter's surprised look let me know that tears welled up in my eyes.
"You will never regret this," I said at last. Then I reached across the table to her, squeezed her hand, and mentally prayed for her, for myself, and for all mortal women who dedicate themselves to this most wonderful of callings.

One businessman applied to one of the local banks in New York with a request to provide him with a three-week loan in the amount of $1,000.

As collateral, he offered the bank his car, a sports Ferrari worth a quarter of a million ($250,000).

Who is stronger?

The parable of the ancient Greek sage Aesop.

The Sun and the Wind argued who is stronger, and the Wind said: “I will prove that I am stronger. Do you see the old man in the raincoat? I bet I can get him to take off his cape faster than you can."

The sun hid behind a cloud, and the wind began to blow harder and harder until it almost turned into a hurricane.

Leaving all the hard work on newcomers is the policy of many companies. Somewhere this rite is called probation, somewhere - hazing.

But almost everyone does it.

Jay Walter Thompson (JWT) was no exception.

A young manager, James Young, came to work for them. At the same time, a batch of apples came to the company, beaten by frost and covered with black spots. The fruits were intended to be sent to customers, but seeing the state they were in, the JWT management was horrified.

The managers puzzled over what to do with the apples. And they decided to entrust the implementation of apples to a beginner.

Once, already a millionaire, Henry Ford came to England on business. At the airport information desk, he inquired about any cheap hotel, as long as it was nearby.

The clerk looked at him - his face was famous. Newspapers often wrote about Ford. And here he is, wearing a raincoat that looks older than he is, asking about a cheap hotel. The clerk asked uncertainly:

If I'm not mistaken, are you Mr. Henry Ford?

You call shame on me in front of everyone:
I am an atheist, I am a drunkard, almost a thief!
I am ready to agree with your words.
But are you worthy of judgment?
(Omar Khayyam)

One person began to publicly insult Omar Khayyam:

- You are an atheist! You are a drunk! You are mediocre!

In response, Khayyam only smiled and said loudly:

- I am ready to agree with your words ... provided that you yourself are a worthy person.

And he turned to those around him:

- Do you agree to call this person worthy?

- Not! - said the people around. - If it was a worthy person, he would not speak badly about other people.

In one city they held a competition for the best artist.

And, in the end, the jury chose the two best. But the judges could not decide which of the artists was the best. Then they turned to the Sage for advice.

The sage addressed the finalists with a question:

– How many shortcomings do you see in your paintings.

One artist said:

- If I saw a flaw in the picture, I would immediately correct it. This picture is flawless.

Modern legend.

Mark Zuckerberg reveals he has been in talks for a long time to merge Facebook and WhatsApp. And the negotiations didn't work.

For reference. WhatsApp appeared in 2009. It was founded by Jan Koum and Brian Acton. In 2014, when WhatsApp had 400 million monthly active users, Facebook wanted to take over WhatsApp. Both WhatsApp and Facebook were to benefit from this merger.

Mark Zuckerberg invited Jan Koum to his home to once again discuss the terms of the acquisition of WhatsApp.

Philosophical parable.

What kind of people live in this city?

It was a long time ago. But this story is still alive.

One gray-haired man was sitting near an oasis, at the entrance to an eastern city. A young man approached the old man and asked:

– I have never been here. Tell me, Old Man, what kind of people live in this city?

The old man answered him with a question:

What kind of people were in that city? The one you left?
“They were selfish and evil people. However, that is why I gladly left there!
- Well. You're out of luck. And here you will meet exactly the same people, - the old man answered him.
“Well, I’ll go take a look at the city.

After a while, another person approached the place and asked the same question:

The most common legend about Narcissus,
although there are other legends….

There lived a handsome young man named Narcissus.

He was the son of the river god Kephiss. The nymph Echo, captivated by his beauty, suffered severely from unrequited love. In the end, Echo went to the mountains and died there, leaving her voice.

It just so happened that the heart of the young man did not reciprocate.

As punishment, Nemesis prophesied that Narcissus would one day experience an all-consuming feeling of unrequited love.

And soon the prophecy came true: on a hot day, the young man bent over the stream to quench his thirst and, seeing his own reflection in the mirror surface of the water, froze.

Narcissus was fascinated, in love with unconsciousness.

He did not sleep, did not eat, only admired himself until he died. In the place where the soul left the body, a beautiful lone flower with a drooping head grew.

Video Legend of Narcissus.

/ Legend of Narcissus / Narcissus, the legend /

There was a woman walking along the road, beautiful as a fairy. Suddenly she noticed that a young man was following her. She turned around and asked:

"Tell me, why are you following me?"

The guy replied:

“Oh, mistress of my heart, your charms are so irresistible that they command me to follow you. I want to express my love to you, because you captured my heart.

The girl silently looked at the young man for a while, and then said:

There lived a wise man. Everyone loved him. But, as always, there was a young man who wanted to test his wisdom. He persuaded his friends to teach the old man a lesson.

The sage sat near his house and thought about something. Suddenly, young people approached and they began to tease and even insult the person, trying to piss him off.

And again about the main thing - about mutual understanding.
Someone once (whether it was John Gray with his helpful relationship books, or someone before him) came up with the idea that Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. Everyone has heard about it, but no one takes it seriously. An intricate invention - nothing more. Artifice. But after all, like any good metaphor, it can help to better understand and see what we sometimes forget. And it's good when someone appears who will remind you of this.
🙂

Slender man, or Slenderman

According to legend, the Slender Man is a tall, thin man dressed in a black suit with a white shirt and a black tie. He has long thin arms and legs, and his face is completely devoid of features.

His arms are able to stretch, and tentacles grow from his back.

When the Slender Man appears, his victim loses his memory, experiences insomnia, paranoia, a coughing fit, and blood flows from his nose.

If Slenderman was noticed in the area, then the children will soon disappear. He lures them into the forest, deprives them of their minds and takes them with him. Those children who were fascinated by the Slender Man were never seen again.

In 1983, 14 children went missing in Stirling City, USA. Their disappearance was linked to the Slender Man. Later, in the city's library, a picture was found by an unknown photographer, which was taken on that day, and the monster was allegedly present on it.

Both girls ended up in a psychiatric hospital: one for 25 years, the other for 40.

Black Dog of Meriden

The Meriden Black Dog from the US state of Connecticut is a small ghost dog that leaves no tracks or sounds. According to legend, if you saw the Black Dog three times, death awaits you. It appears silently, leaves no traces (even in the snow), after which it just as suddenly disappears.

In the early 1900s, geologist Pynchon explored a mountain in Meridena called West Peak. One day he saw a black dog among the trees. As Pynchon turned to head home, the dog disappeared into the trees.

The second time the scientist saw a black dog a few years later in the same place. One of his friends, with whom he climbed the mountain that day, said that he had already seen the dog twice.

They wandered around and finally reached the top. But the enemy was waiting for them. The black dog stood in front. Pynchon turned away only for a second, when suddenly he heard a terrible cry. His friend fell and hit the rocks.

In Meriden, locals told Pynchon about the legend of the Black Dog, but he did not believe it. Several years passed, the geologist decided to visit the same mountain. He left his apartment at dawn and never returned. His dead body was later found at the bottom of a ravine.

Pisadeira

In Brazil, there is a legend about a terrible woman named Pisadeira. She comes to men who are afraid, or to those who have had a hearty dinner and lay on their backs - in this position, the victim of Pisadeira is practically unable to escape.

Pisadeira is a bony and thin creature, she has short lower limbs and long dirty hair, a hooked nose, reddish eyes, thin lips, sharp teeth with a greenish coating. On her long fingers are wide yellow nails. But even more frightening is the laughter and mocking giggle of the monster. If a person hears a characteristic laugh at night, then Pisadeira will come to him soon. It is a terrible laugh that precedes her appearance.

The monster torments his victim until she suffocates from fright, but Pisadeira can also leave a person, having been fed up with fear.

Phantom of Benito Juarez Park in Mexico

In the small Mexican town of Haral del Progreso, there is a Benito Juarez park. This is one of the sights of the city, but the park was laid out on the site of an old cemetery, so a bad reputation spread about it. The city authorities did their best to improve the square. They installed benches and paved paths for people to enjoy the beauty of nature. However, as the locals believed, the authorities woke up the local spirits and put a curse on the place.

Every evening in the park, someone would destroy the benches and disappear. Then the authorities hired security guards to patrol the area at night.

And then one evening the guard went on duty. At first everything was calm. The riots began when a thick fog covered the park. The guard heard a woman scream and went to check what had happened. When he reached the place, an elderly woman dressed in a white dress was standing in front of him. The watchman followed her, and she began to smash and throw the benches.

When the guard approached her, he saw that the woman had no legs, she was floating in the air. Suddenly, the old woman attacked him and began to beat him furiously. The guard managed to escape, the next morning he told about what he saw. Shortly after this incident, he fell ill with a mysterious illness and died. The city authorities banned this story from the media, but the rumor still spread throughout the city, no one else wanted to be on duty at night.

The locals called the ghost the phantom of the park.

closet girl

One day, a 57-year-old Japanese man noticed that someone was swapping things in his house, food was disappearing from the refrigerator, and strange sounds woke him up at night. The man decided that he was going crazy, because he lived all alone. Both windows and doors in his house were always closed.

One day he decided to act and installed hidden cameras in all rooms.

The next day, he looked at the footage. In the footage, an unknown woman crawled out of the Japanese man's cupboard. The man assumed she was a robber. But the police said no one picked the locks.

After a thorough search, the woman was found in a small locker. As it turned out, she lived for a year in the house of a Japanese.

Goat Man from Maryland

For many US residents, Prince George's County in the US state of Maryland is associated with a bloodthirsty monster named Goat Man.

According to legend, the monster used to be an ordinary goat breeder. Once his wife became seriously ill, he had to work tirelessly to help his beloved. But the cruel teenagers decided to play a trick on the poor fellow and poisoned all his goats. The family was left without a single source of income, and the woman died.

Grief turned the farmer into a terrible monster, he ran into the forest and began to kill everyone who met him on the way.

According to another version, the goat-man is a scientific experiment of the mad scientist Dr. Fletcher. Local residents believe that prohibited experiments on animals were carried out in the agricultural scientific center of the district. Once, by experiment, a scientist created a half-man, half-goat. The researchers decided to keep him alive for study. But the creature grew up and turned into a cruel monster. He killed several scientists and escaped from the center.

True or myth, but in the 50s of the XX century, strange events took place in the district. In 1958, residents found a German Shepherd dead: the dog was torn to shreds, but its meat was not eaten.

In the spring of 1961, two students were found dead in Bowie, Maryland. The girl and the boy went to the forest at night. In the morning, a local hunter found a car with broken windows and many deep scratches on the body. The bodies of teenagers, mutilated beyond recognition, were found in the back seat. The perpetrator was never found.

In 2011, the American horror film Death Detour was released, inspired by the Maryland monster.

According to Irish folklore, a banshee is a spirit from the underworld. She appears in the form of an ugly woman to the relatives and friends of the one who is about to die. It is believed that if the banshee did not cry loudly enough before her death, then in the next world her cries will be several times worse.

Banshees look like terrible screaming women, old women with flowing gray hair, a terrible wrinkled face and a skeletal thinness.

The legend of an American girl who took revenge on her lover

In the USA, there is a terrible legend about a girl who took revenge on her lover for unrequited love. In the small town of Stahl, Texas, there once stood a small church surrounded by graves. Next to the church there was a cellar, which was very difficult to find, as it was overgrown with grass.

The priest's daughter fell madly in love with a neighbor's boy, but he broke her heart by choosing another girl. They got married, his chosen one became pregnant. Shortly after the birth of the child, the priest's daughter visited the couple. They greeted her cordially, but the girl herself looked at their child with hatred.

The priest's daughter suddenly attacked her parents and cut their throats, then she dragged their bodies to the hill where the church stood. She left the dead in the cellar, she placed the living child between them.

The priest's daughter closed the door to the cellar and soon died. The bodies in the cellar could not be found for three weeks.

Many believe that the voice of a crying child is still heard near the church at night.

Corpse House in Mexico

In the Mexican city of Monterey, there is a famous legend about an abandoned building called the "corpse house". The strange building was built in the 1970s, but no one has ever lived in the building.

From the street, the house looks like a structure made of concrete pipes. According to legend, the house was built by a wealthy couple who had a sick, paralyzed daughter. My father wanted to build a special house that would be suitable for people with disabilities. The design of the house included ramps that led from one floor to another.

The family started building. One day the girl wanted to look at the house. She began to ride ramps, her parents were distracted for just a moment, when suddenly her wheelchair flew down the ramp. The girl could not stop, as a result she flew out the window and crashed to death.

Years later, the unfinished building was put up for sale. But no one wanted to buy it for a long time. Once there were clients. They came to see the building with their little son. While the couple were considering the situation, the boy went upstairs, and after a few minutes they heard him scream. On the top floor, he fought with a little girl. An unknown person grabbed their son and threw him out the window. The boy died, the girl could not be found.

After this story, the authorities fenced off the area.

In 1941, in one of the theaters in the American city of Ravens Fair, a certain Mary Shaw performed with her doll Billy. Once one of the spectators - a little boy - called the woman a liar. He saw that the woman's lips moved as Billy spoke. A few weeks later, the unfortunate critic was gone.

Residents of the city and the boy's parents blamed the ventriloquist for his disappearance. Soon Mary Shaw was found dead. According to local legend, the Eshen family (the boy's relatives) committed lynching against the woman. They broke into the dressing room, made Shaw scream, and then ripped out her tongue.

Before her death, the woman wished that all her dolls were buried with her, there were 101 of them.

After the funeral of the ventriloquist in Ravens Fair, massacres began. And the victims of the crimes were those people who raised their hand to the show. They, like Mary, had their tongues torn out.

Disputes between supporters of the theory of creationism and evolutionary theory do not subside to this day. However, unlike the theory of evolution, creationism includes not one, but hundreds of different theories (if not more).

The myth of Pan-gu

The Chinese have their own ideas about how the world came into being. The most popular myth can be called the myth of Pan-gu, a giant man. The plot is as follows: at the dawn of time, Heaven and Earth were so close to each other that they merged into a single black mass.
According to legend, this mass was an egg, and Pan-gu lived inside it, and he lived for a long time - many millions of years. But one day he got tired of such a life, and, waving a heavy ax, Pan-gu got out of his egg, splitting it into two parts. These parts later became Heaven and Earth. He was unimaginably tall - about fifty kilometers long, which, by the standards of the ancient Chinese, was the distance between Heaven and Earth.
Unfortunately for Pan-gu, and fortunately for us, the colossus was mortal and, like all mortals, died. And then Pan-gu decomposed. But not the way we do it. Pan-gu was decomposing really cool: his voice turned into thunder, his skin and bones became the firmament of the earth, and his head became Cosmos. So, his death gave life to our world.

Chernobog and Belobog

This is one of the most significant myths of the Slavs. He tells about the confrontation between Good and Evil - the White and Black gods. It all started like this: when there was only one solid sea around, Belobog decided to create land by sending his shadow - Chernobog - to do all the dirty work. Chernobog did everything as expected, however, having a selfish and proud nature, he did not want to share power over the firmament with Belobog, deciding to drown the latter.
Belobog got out of this situation, did not allow himself to be killed, and even blessed the land erected by Chernobog. However, with the advent of land, one small problem arose: its area grew exponentially, threatening to swallow everything around.
Then Belobog sent his delegation to Earth in order to find out from Chernobog how to stop this business. Well, Chernobog sat on a goat and went to negotiations. The delegates, seeing Chernobog galloping towards them on a goat, were imbued with the comedy of this spectacle and burst into wild laughter. Chernobog did not understand humor, was very offended and flatly refused to talk to them.
Meanwhile, Belobog, still wanting to save the Earth from dehydration, decided to spy on Chernobog, making a bee for this purpose. The insect coped with the task successfully and found out the secret, which was as follows: in order to stop the growth of land, it is necessary to draw a cross on it and say the cherished word - “enough”. What Belobog did.
To say that Chernobog was not happy is to say nothing. Wanting to take revenge, he cursed Belobog, and cursed him in a very original way: for his meanness, Belobog was now supposed to eat bee feces all his life. However, Belobog did not lose his head and made bee stools sweet like sugar, and this is how honey appeared. For some reason, the Slavs did not think about how people appeared ... The main thing is that there is honey.

Armenian duality

Armenian myths are reminiscent of Slavic ones and also tell us about the existence of two opposite principles - this time male and female. Unfortunately, the myth does not answer the question of how our world was created, it only explains how everything around is arranged. But that doesn't make it any less interesting.
So, here is a summary: Heaven and Earth are husband and wife separated by the ocean; The sky is a city, and the Earth is a piece of rock, which is held on its huge horns by an equally huge bull - when he shakes his horns, the earth bursts at the seams from earthquakes. That, in fact, is all - this is how the Armenians imagined the Earth.
There is also an alternative myth where the Earth is in the middle of the sea, and Leviathan swims around it, trying to grab onto its own tail, and constant earthquakes were also explained by its flopping. When Leviathan finally bites his own tail, life on Earth will end and the apocalypse will come. Have a nice day.

Norse myth of the ice giant

It would seem that there is nothing in common between the Chinese and the Scandinavians - but no, the Vikings also had their own giant - the origin of everything, only his name was Ymir, and he was icy and with a club. Before his appearance, the world was divided into Muspelheim and Niflheim - the realms of fire and ice, respectively. And between them stretched Ginnungagap, symbolizing absolute chaos, and there, from the merger of two opposite elements, Ymir was born.
And now closer to us, to the people. When Ymir began to sweat, a man and a woman emerged from his right armpit along with the sweat. It's strange, yes, we understand this - well, that's how they are, harsh Vikings, there's nothing to be done. But back to the point. The man's name was Buri, he had a son Bor, and Bor had three sons - Odin, Vili and Ve. The three brothers were gods and ruled Asgard. This seemed not enough to them, and they decided to kill Ymir's great-grandfather, making the world out of him.
Ymir was not happy, but no one asked him. In the process, he shed a lot of blood - enough to fill the seas and oceans with it; from the skull of the unfortunate brothers created the vault of heaven, they broke his bones, making mountains and cobblestones out of them, and they made clouds out of the torn brains of poor Ymir.
Odin and the company immediately decided to populate this new world: so they found two beautiful trees on the seashore - ash and alder, making a man out of ash, and a woman out of alder, thereby giving rise to the human race.

Greek myth of balls

Like many other peoples, the ancient Greeks believed that before our world appeared, there was only continuous Chaos around. There was no sun, no moon - everything was dumped into one big heap, where things were inseparable from each other.
But then a certain god came, looked at the chaos reigning around, thought and decided that all this was not good, and set to work: he separated the cold from the heat, the foggy morning from the clear day, and all that sort of thing.
Then he set about the Earth, rolling it into a ball and dividing this ball into five parts: it was very hot at the equator, extremely cold at the poles, but between the poles and the equator - just right, you can’t imagine more comfortable. Further, from the seed of an unknown god, most likely Zeus, known to the Romans as Jupiter, the first man was created - two-faced and also in the shape of a ball.
And then they tore it in two, making a man and a woman out of it - the future of us.