Part of the archetypal vampire trope was that peasants would carry grains of wheat or barley in their pocket, so that if they were being pursued by vampires, th

Part of the archetypal vampire trope was that peasants would carry grains of wheat or barley in their pocket, so that if they were being pursued by vampires, they could throw down the grains of wheat, and the vampire would be transfixed and obsessively start trying to count the grains, allowing the peasant to escape.