On Joji's rare day off, the crows fly him over the neighboring rice paddies. When they spot a lady scarecrow weeping, Joji offers to help. She tells Joji that she cannot protect her rice plants from the Amanojaku, a goblin who plants thorn bushes in her paddies.
Joji offers to change clothes with her and waits for the Amanojaku in her place. Besides planting thorn bushes, the Amanojaku is known to do the opposite of anything he is told.
Joji manages to trick him into leaving by telling him to stay. The lady scarecrow is thankful, and the crows fly Joji home to be in time for work. The farmer tells Joji that he looks rested, so he won't need another day off too soon.
I found that American children I read to were amused rather than frightened by the naughty Amanojaku: they could identify with his doing the opposite of what he was told. They would call each other "Amanojaku."
When I lived in Hiroshima, I could see a small island in the Inland Sea where an Amanojaki was said to be buried. I wondered if he was the one that Joji had fooled in the lady scarecrow's paddies.