A man had a very bad wife, so bad that he was afraid of her. Sometimes she beat him. One morning she ordered him to go for a walk with her instead of going to work.
There was a crocodile in that city, five meters long. It caused trouble for the city, and people stayed three kilometers away from its pit. The king’s men collected money and gold to keep it there, but the following year the same thing happened again.
Ger walked ahead and he followed her. She crossed the crocodile’s boundary. He warned her that the crocodile would kill them, but she mocked him. At the pit she put her head inside to look for the crocodile. The man felt that his moment of deliverance had come and pushed her into the pit.
He went home, but his children demanded that he bring their mother back. He returned to the pit, lowered a rope, and called in tears, “Ger, if you are alive, tie yourself to the rope and I will pull you out.” The rope shook. He pulled and discovered that it was the crocodile that had tied itself to the rope.
The crocodile swore that it would not harm him and promised him much good. It said it was leaving because it feared the woman might escape. It told him to go to the king and say that he could drive the crocodile away. He would receive money and become rich and respected, but if he came to another place where the crocodile was, it would kill him.
The man went to the king and said he could drive the beast away. The king promised to make him his second deputy, but the man refused payment. Everyone saw him cross the crocodile’s boundary, and the beast left the kingdom. The people rejoiced, gave him gifts, and gave him the crocodile’s money.
The crocodile went to a second city. Its king offered the man half his kingdom if he drove it away there too. The crocodile had warned him not to come to another place where it was, but the king asked him to help his neighbor and he agreed.
The crocodile saw him and threatened him. The man interrupted: “Listen! Ger is coming… she has come out of the pit!” The crocodile immediately fled again. Once more the man received money and became even richer and more respected.
Thanks to the Tavor (Cherkian) family.
The story was told by Baruch Tavor and recorded by Liora Behar.
The story is also recorded in the Israel Folktales Archives (IFA), named for Dov Noy at the University of Haifa, serial no. 10219.