Folklore Thursday: Why only women have periods

Today is Folklore Thursday on social media! If you want to find out more, follow this link, or click on the #FolkloreThursday hashtag on Twitter! Hosted by @FolkloreThursday.

On a related note: I am currently running a Goodreads poll on what makes people pick up a folktale collection. I am curious, and also it will hopefully help me select the books I will feature in my A to Z theme, come April. I appreciate all input! If you have favorite folktale collections, comment away :)

In the meantime, I am continuing the running theme of the Peasant Bible, Hungarian folktales that feature biblical elements.
There will be blood.

Why only women have periods

(I was happy to find this particular text, because it tells me that this question has been bugging people for a very long time.)

According to the folktale, when God created people, both men and women had periods.
The story goes there was a carpenter who worked while menstruating, and there was blood everywhere in the workshop, staining the floor and the wood chips lying around. His wife came in, saw the mess, and ordered him to clean it up. The husband pushed the bloody wood chips around a bit, but nothing got significantly cleaner. Because she couldn't watch the mess getting messier, she started cleaning up after him as he went about his work, bleeding away in a carefree manner.
God looked down and saw all this. He thought about it for a full two minutes before he declared that from that day on only women will bleed, because they are the only ones sensible enough to know how to keep the mess in check.
And so it has been ever since.

(Side note: Sadly, some people are still trying to make it damn hard to keep said mess in check.)