The legend of a riddle-giving crab was popularized in the kyōgen play "Kani yamabushi," which helped to spread this legend across Japan.

The traveling priest awoke from his dream to a strange sound nearby. Looking up, he saw another priest standing next to his bedside. The priest glared fiercely at him and asked a riddle: “What has eight small legs, two large legs, walks sideways, and has eyes pointing straight towards heaven?”

The traveling priest thought for a moment, and then replied, “You are a crab!” Then he quickly struck at the strange priest with his staff. Startled by the sudden attack, the strange priest shed his disguise and became a gigantic crab. It scuttled sideways out of the temple. The traveling priest threw his staff at the crab, cracking its shell, but it managed to escape.

In the morning, the villagers came to the temple to see if the traveling priest was still alive. The priest told them to drain the pond behind the temple, for a yōkai lived inside of it. When the water was drained, they discovered the body of the enormous crab with its shell cracked open. They also discovered the skeletons of all the priests who went missing from the temple.

After that, the traveling priest became the new head priest of the temple. And nothing strange ever happened there again.