In Tomášská Street of the Lesser Town there once lived a locksmith whose wife was truly beautiful. The wife took advantage of her good looks and flirted with other men. One day the locksmith hired a young talented apprentice to help him out with his work. The wife liked the young boy very much and started an unacceptable intimate relation with him. Not long after, the wife decided to kill her husband and then marry the young apprentice. She weaved a wicked plan.
That night she turned to her sleeping husband and stuck a nail right through his temple which killed him instantly. Not a single drop of blood came out of the wound and thanks to the locksmith’s thick hair the nail couldn’t be seen. Everyone believed that the busy man had
died of a stroke. When the funeral was over the wife married the young apprentice and their business continued to prosper.
Seven years went by when an order from the sovereign was given to inspect all graves. One gravedigger found the nail in the locksmith’s scull and reported it. The late locksmith’s wife was taken in for questioning and soon revealed the truth. She and her second husband were both taken to trial and were later tortured on a wheel. Thus the murderess was justly punished but the poor locksmith’ soul never found peace not even in the silence of his grave for he died without accepting the last Sacrament. His ghost which appears as a skeleton with the nail in its head continues to roam around the locksmith’s store.
