μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif
Scholars’ trail — 1reference

The index’s own references — the collections where scholars sighted this story-shape, tradition by tradition. Titles on our shelf are live links; the rest is the frontier, not yet shelved.

  • IndiaThompson-Balys.
Within the index

Filed under Foolish bargains.

4 finer motifs beneath it
Foolish bargain: horse for cow, cow for hog, etc. Finally nothing leftFoolish bargain: good fish for worthless shell; shell with pearl in it for small fishFool exchanges his wife with ox; thinks something to be wrong with her head (she has been marked with red at the parting of her hair)Fools sent to buy cow procure a monkey instead
Filed beside it
Squaring accounts by shaving the wife. A numskull has paid twice the regular amount for a shave. The barber shaves the wifeThe foolish attempt to cheat the buyerFoolish reward offeredThe foolish pawn. The woman sells cows and gets one of them back as a pledge for the unpaid purchase priceThe persuasive auctioneer. The auctioneer praises the man's worthless cow so much in his speech that the man takes her back himselfThe considerate seller. A numskull having an over-short turban for sale at auction warns the prospective buyer that it is too shortThief warned what not to steal. The numskull tells the thief where his door-key, his cakes, and his roasts are and warns him not to steal themThe trusted porters. A man finds a treasure, but is robbed by porters whom he has employed to rid him of the trouble of carrying itValuables given away or sold for trifleExpensive wood burned to make charcoalTo eat a hundred onions. Choice of eating 100 onions, receiving 100 blows, or paying 100 coins. Fool tries onions in vain, then the blows, and finally must give the coinsStupid boy convinced that trading all his silver for worthless cup will gain people's respectFoolish bargain: miscellaneous

wander