Once upon a time there was a man happily married to
the daughter of a king. For fear that his wife would be led astray, the husband
did not allow her to mix freely with other people. In the same village there was
a certain woman who was a notorious liar. One day she told the daughter of the
king: "My child, the reason your husband doesn’t want you to visit your
neighbors is because he has other women friends and is afraid that you will find
out. The only way to win back his love is to cut off a piece of his hair in the
middle of the night with a razor blade and make a love potion out of it."

    The next day the liar met the husband and said: "My child,
what is the trouble with you and your wife? Just now I heard that she is looking
for a knife and plans to kill you." The husband replied, "Is that right?" "Yes,"
the liar answered, "Be very careful tonight when you go to bed."

    That night when the daughter of the king thought that her
husband was sound asleep, she took a razor intending to cut off a piece of his
hair. The husband was not really asleep. Thinking that his wife was about to
kill him, he got up from the bed and stabbed his wife in the chest. As she was
dying she said, "My husband, why did you do this?" He replied, "And why did you
try to kill me?"

    When the king learned that his daughter had been killed he
issued an order to destroy all the relatives of his son-in-law. There were many
witches in those days, but one liar destroyed the whole village. From this
Sukuma story comes the proverb: It is better to have a witch as a neighbor than
a liar.