The story, revised and modernised in both the book and film, dates back to a medieval legend, one of many gathered together in a volume by Alfonso el Sabio.

The new local mayor, a blacksmith whom the monks would not let adopt Marcelino because of his coarse behaviour, uses the incident as an excuse to try to shut down the monastery.

Given the silent treatment by the monks, Marcelino gathers up the courage to once again enter the attic, where he sees not a bogeyman, but a beautiful statue of Christ on the Cross.

The monks witness the miracle through a crack in the attic door and burst in just in time to see the dead Marcelino bathed in a heavenly glow.

The figure of the Christ, however, does not correspond to that of the Caloco, but is a sculpture by the sculptor Antonio Simont and is currently on the altar of the Chapel of St. Teresa of the Convent of the Carmelites of Don Benito (Badajoz).