Once upon a time there was a zombie called Patizombi, who was fed up with being the villain in everyone’s stories. So, to prove that he could do good, he decided to go hunting evil ghosts.

But ghosts aren’t very visible and they’re sneaky too. It was only after many failed attempts that Patizombi spotted a confused ghost floating through the forest. He approached it carefully, set out his traps and jumped on him.

The battle was going very badly until Patizombi realized that he was in fact not fighting a ghost but a clingy bedsheet he’d been trapped by.

“Ha, ha, ha! You have fallen right into my trap, you evil zombie!” A ghost laughed, emerging from his hiding spot.

“Ahh, evil ghost,” Patizombi replied. “I’ll catch you one day.”

“No, no, no, no and no!” said the ghost, incredibly offended. “Excuse me, but I am a good ghost and my job is to hunt evil zombies.

“Oh no you don’t!” objected Patizombi, “because I am a good zombie, and I am the one who hunts evil ghosts.”

After arguing for a little while, they realised they were both telling the truth. They found it funny and became friends.

“I suppose not all ghosts are evil…”

“Nor all zombies…”

“We could join forces to hunt ogres”

And they headed as a team into the mountains, where the most fearsome ogres were hidden. Working quickly together, they found the track of an ogre that led them to a cave. As the ogre was out, they prepared a trap but while they were doing so a giant stone fell and blocked the entrance leaving them trapped.

“Ha, ha, ha! it was so easy to trap that evil zombie and his ghostie partner!”

“Lies!” they protested from inside, “We are not evil. The only evil one is you and we have come to catch you!”

Once again, the discussion carried on until everyone was persuaded that none of them was evil.

“We would never have thought that good ogres existed”

“Neither would I have thought that a zombie and a ghost were not evil”

It is obvious that, before you set out to hunt anyone, you need to make sure that they are evil...

That is how they discovered that, even if a creature has a reputation for being evil, it is not always true. And this is also true for all other creatures who have a reputation for being dirty, noisy or annoying: you can never tell which ones are actually like that without first getting to know them. That is how they found many more zombies, ghosts and good ogres who joined their group of catchers of evil creatures. Everyone trusted this valley police force, which never allowed anyone to be treated badly due to prejudice and to bad reputations they did not deserve.

Translated by Toni Wainwright, Ellie Bradbury, Josie Maguire and Lewis Hughes, Manchester Metropolitan University