Not in his line of business. At market a man enquires of another: "How is the moon, three-quarters or full?" "I don't know. I have neither bought nor sold one." — Mythoi

Motif

Not in his line of business. At market a man enquires of another: "How is the moon, three-quarters or full?" "I don't know. I have neither bought nor sold one."

The wise and the foolish. · Cleverness. · Clever verbal retorts (repartee). · Rude retorts. · view the constellation · filed as J1354

Cited in the index

general Wesselski Hodscha Nasreddin I 209 No. 17.

Within the index

Filed under Rude retorts.

Filed beside it

Women call each other prostitutes Person calls another an ass Whom it concerns. There is someone carrying a goose. How does that concern me? He is carrying it to your house. How does that concern you? The one exception. "You are a good man; there is not your equal on the earth. You have everything for yourself alone; only your wife is public property." The flatterer's retort. Two men meet a homely girl. One of them: "Who wouldn't call that girl pretty?" The girl overhears and says, "No one would say it of you." The man: "Anyone might say it who would lie as I have lied about you." Ancient and modern ancestors. To a prince who boasted that he was descended from the Trojans a doctor replies: "My people are of Nurenberg. Everyone knows who they are; but of the Trojans no one knows anything except that Aeneas was a traitor and Romulus a robber." No thanks to the messenger. A messenger tells a man that he has a newborn son. "Thanks are to God, but I am not beholden to you for it." Monk says that he is a stallion. In reply to women's taunts he boasts of his powers. A woman calls on the devil to come and ride him Too late for the same advice. Impoverished spendthrift sarcastically to thrifty person: "Stop spending so freely!" "It's too late to give you the same advice." To be rewarded by his kind. Unworthy person is rewarded. Asks worthy one: "Why is it that I am rewarded and you are not?" Answer: "Because you have found more of your kind than I have of mine." (Also told of Dante and a minstrel.) Rude retorts – miscellaneous

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