The Severed Hand From "German Tales" Published by the American Publishers' Corporation

"The Severed Hand" by Wilhelm Hauff is a sorrowful story that shows what happens when someone makes bad choices, written in the 1800s. It's a short story with magical elements and a moral lesson from that period. We follow Zaleukos, a young Greek whose luck runs out when fate, lying, and his choices crash down around him. Educated and ready to live his life, Zaleukos returns to learn his inheritance has been stolen after his father's death. He travels to Florence hoping to find some luck, but he finds a mysterious man on a bridge in the dark. Because of this encounter, Zaleukos is given a terrible task: to cut off the head of his sister, who the stranger thinks might still be alive. But things go wrong, and Zaleukos accidentally kills her, and then he's found guilty of murder when he didn't mean to do it. It's a story about feeling guilty, trying to get forgiven, and the hard questions we face when we talk about life and death. In the end, Zaleukos loses a hand for what he did. It is a constant, haunting, life long reminder.