The ass is not at home. A man wants to borrow an ass. The owner says that the ass is not at home. The ass brays and the borrower protests. "Will you believe an ass and not a graybeard like me?"

Motif

The ass is not at home. A man wants to borrow an ass. The owner says that the ass is not at home. The ass brays and the borrower protests. "Will you believe an ass and not a graybeard like me?"

The wise and the foolish. · Cleverness. · Clever practical retorts. · Practical retorts: borrowers and lenders. · view the constellation · filed as J1552.1.1

Filed across the traditions

Italian Novella Rotunda.
general *Wesselski Hodscha Nasreddin I 224 No. 65
general L. Schmidt Oesterr. Zs. f. Vksk. 1954, 128

Within the index

Filed under The ass consulted about the loan. A man wants to borrow an ass. The owner goes to see what the ass says. The ass is unwilling.

1 finer motif beneath it

The bigger fool. When told by servants their master is not at home, man says it is a fool that goes out in such midday heat. Whereupon master sticks his head out of the window, saying "Thou who art moving about at this time art the big fool: I have been seated all day in my house."

Carried in tale types

The Donkey Is Not at Home · ATU 1594 1 recorded variant

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