μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Foolish bargain: progressive type.

The wise and the foolish. · Fools (and other unwise persons). · Absurd short-sightedness. · Foolish bargains. · view the constellation · filed as J2081

Filed across the traditions
  • India Thompson-Balys.
Within the index

Filed under Foolish bargains.

4 finer motifs beneath it
Foolish bargain: horse for cow, cow for hog, etc. Finally nothing left Foolish bargain: good fish for worthless shell; shell with pearl in it for small fish Fool 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 wife The foolish attempt to cheat the buyer Foolish reward offered The foolish pawn. The woman sells cows and gets one of them back as a pledge for the unpaid purchase price The persuasive auctioneer. The auctioneer praises the man's worthless cow so much in his speech that the man takes her back himself The considerate seller. A numskull having an over-short turban for sale at auction warns the prospective buyer that it is too short Thief 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 them The trusted porters. A man finds a treasure, but is robbed by porters whom he has employed to rid him of the trouble of carrying it Valuables given away or sold for trifle Expensive wood burned to make charcoal To 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 coins Stupid boy convinced that trading all his silver for worthless cup will gain people's respect Foolish bargain: miscellaneous

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