Disastrous following of instructions.
The wise and the foolish. · Fools (and other unwise persons). · Literal fools. · Literal obedience. · view the constellation · filed as J2465
Motif
Within the index
Filed under Literal obedience.
13 finer motifs beneath it
Feeding the pigs wet meal. The wife throws the meal into the well and the pigs after it Piling up the pottery. The woman breaks the pots into fragments and piles them up Feeding the child. Fool feeds it steaming food and kills it Washing the child. Fool uses boiling water and kills it Clearing out the room. Fool throws out all the furniture Washing the room. Fool floods it Oh bother! put it on my head! Numskulls asking old woman where to put grain obey and smother her Cutting at the plow. Literal fool told to cut at plow if it sticks on roots cuts at bullock's legs "Sew shirts for servants." Fool sews them to trees "Collect goats under tree." Fool piles up their carcasses Fool takes threat to child as an order. Cuts off child's ears Plowing above the tree. Told to plow above a certain tree (on the hillside), numskulls haul oxen and plow into tree and destroy them "Plowing out potatoes." Fool plows them out of ground
Filed beside it
Disastrous following of misunderstood instructions. (To burn land, then sow seed. Opposite done.) What should I have done (said)? The mother teaches the boy (the man his wife) what he should say (do) in this or that circumstance. He uses the words in the most impossible cases and is always punished Foolish bridegroom follows instructions literally The foolish bride The servant to improve on the master's statements. The wooer makes boasts to the girl and the servant always doubles the master's boast. Finally the master says, "I have poor eyesight." – The servant, "You don't see at all." (Or the master coughs and apologizes; the servant says that he coughs all night.) Literal following of the count Instructions followed literally – miscellaneous
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