The four coins. (Focus.) King: What do you do with the four coins you earn? Peasant: First I eat (feed self); second I put out at interest (give my children); third I give back (pay debts); fourth I throw away (give my wife.) — Mythoi

Motif

The four coins. (Focus.) King: What do you do with the four coins you earn? Peasant: First I eat (feed self); second I put out at interest (give my children); third I give back (pay debts); fourth I throw away (give my wife.)

Tests. · Tests of cleverness. · Riddles. · Enigmatic statements. · view the constellation · filed as H585.1

Filed across the traditions

Russian Andrejev No. 921 I*
Italian Novella Rotunda
India Thompson-Balys
Africa (Swahili) Steere 295.
general Köhler-Bolte Zs. f. Vksk. VI 161 (to Gonzenbach No. 50)
general BP IV 137
general Oesterley No. 57
general cf. Pauli (ed. Bolte) No. 8
general Anderson FFC XLII 356 n. 1. Lithuanian: Balys Index No. 921A*

Within the index

Filed under Enigmatic conversation of king and peasant.

Filed beside it

King: Why did you not do it (marry so that sons could help you)? Peasant: I did, but it was not God's will (I married three times but it was not God's will to give me sons)

Carried in tale types

The Sharing of Bread or Money (previously Four Coins) · ATU 921A 1 recorded variant

ask the rhapsode about this motif · search the shelf for “interest” · wander