Many years ago, a woman, the daughter of a long line of garlic farmers, married a man who hated the taste of garlic. Out of her love for him, she refrained from using garlic when cooking even though she missed it. However, he became very ill, and the apothecary told her that garlic was the only thing that might cure him. 

Despite the severity of his sickness, he refused. So she came up with a plan. The woman, knowing of her husband’s fear of ghosts, told him that garlic was effective in warding off demons and evil spirits. The village elder, out of respect for the woman and her family, supported her claims. The husband reluctantly agreed to eat some garlic. Even after he was better, she worried he might relapse and convinced him to continue to eat the root.

One night, on her way back home from a trip to the village, she was cornered by a vampire. She grew fearful that, if the beast fed on her, her husband would realize that the garlic she ate had not warded off the attack and discover her deception. He would then stop eating garlic and fall back into his illness. She explained all of this to the creature and begged that, even if he were to kill her, he not drink her blood so that her husband would continue to eat his garlic.

The vampire was moved by the woman’s concern for her husband rather than herself, and he agreed, going so far as to spare her life altogether. Further, he spread word of the woman’s story and her love for her husband amongst the others of his kind. That is why, to this day, vampires shy away from garlic.