The wise and the foolish

3,525 motifs · page 14 of 18

• Numskulls count selves by sticking their noses in the sand. They then count the holes. J2031.1
• There are ten horses; then when he is mounted there are only nine. Why? J2031.2
• Culture hero throws coconuts to various islands, but forgets one he stands on: hence none now on that island. J2031.3
• Are there nine or ten geese? Ten men are called in; each is to take a goose. If all have a goose, there are ten. One man is left without one. Numskull: "You should have taken one before they were all gone." J2032
• Three girls distressed by seemingly impossible task of going and returning together – one in half month, other in fifteen days, other in seven plus eight days. J2033
• The interrupted calculation. While the merchant is making calculations, he asks the age of his youngest daughter, the elder daughter, and the mother, and always adds this to the number he has reached. J2035
• Keeping the measure by stretching out the arms. Numskull goes to buy goods for his wife. J2036
• Numskulls buy things in common: each pays full price. J2037
• Numskulls buy church in common: each pays full price. J2037.1
• Three brothers buy cow for common use; each brother pays the farmer full price. J2037.2
• Absurd absent-mindedness – miscellaneous. J2040
• Actor forgets and speaks in his own person. J2041
• In Passion Play the Christ says, "I am thirsty"; the thief on the left speaks up, "I too." J2041.1
• Fool forgets master's message. As result of his absent-mindedness he is given a heavy mortar to take to his master. The latter makes him return it as punishment. J2044
• Fool believes plea of not guilty even though he has seen man injure him. J2045
• Law student forgets his speech. Absurd results. J2046
• Hero keeps on leading his horse without discovering that it is dead. J2047
• Given things for self and relatives, fool forgets to take his own. J2048
• Absurd short-sightedness. J2050
• Wise man short-sightedly scorned for his advice. J2051
• God's mercy contrasted with man's short-sightedness. J2052
• Absurd plans. Air-castles. J2060
• Quarrel and fight over details of air-castles. J2060.1
• Man plants hedge: sheep will leave wool on the thorns and bring riches. J2060.2
• To build a palace in the sky: hawk as architect is let fly in the air. J2060.3
• Fools cast lots for royal purple of queen who is still alive. J2060.4
• Air-castle shattered by lack of forethought. J2061
• Air-castle: the jar of honey to be sold. In his excitement he breaks the jar. J2061.1
• Air-castle: basket of glassware to be sold. In his excitement he breaks the glassware. J2061.1.1
• Air-castle: basket of eggs to be sold. In her excitement she breaks all the eggs. J2061.1.2
• Pot of flour to be sold: broken. J2061.1.3
• Air-castle: jar of oil to be sold. J2061.1.4
• Air-castle: pail of milk to be sold. Proud milkmaid tosses her head (or kicks the pail in her sleep) and spills the milk. J2061.2
• Air-castles: pail of milk to be sold. Old woman thinks about the horse she is finally to get from the sale. In her imagination she spurs it and spills the milk. J2061.2.1
• Air-castle: to sell hide of sleeping deer. In his excitement he wakes the deer, who runs off. J2061.3
• Toad having found money daydreams and is run over. J2061.4
• Foolish illustration of argument. J2062
• Which way the sheep shall return. One man plans to buy sheep; another says that he shall not drive them across the bridge. They quarrel over the sheep, which have not yet been acquired. A third numskull to convince them of their foolishness pours all his meal out in the water so as to show them the empty sack. "How much meal is in the sack?" he asks. "None." "There is just that much wit in your heads." J2062.1
• Foolish logician upsets ghee in argument. "Does the ghee protect the saucer, or the saucer the ghee?" J2062.2
• How was the town burned? J2062.3
• Distress over imagined troubles of unborn child. (Clever Else.) Girl sent to cellar to get wine to serve the suitor begins weeping over the troubles of the child which she might have if she married the suitor. Her parents join her. Meanwhile the suitor leaves. J2063
• Queen grieves herself to death over fate of her children after her death. J2063.1
• Servant plans to deceive his master by refusing to eat. J2064
• Foolish waiting. J2066
• The hungry fox waits in vain for horse's scrotum (lips) to fall off. J2066.1
• The daw waits in vain for the figs to ripen in winter. J2066.2
• Men (animals) wait in vain for nuts to fall from a tree. J2066.3
• Waiting in vain for fruit to fall from a non-fruitbearing tree. J2066.3.1
• Wolf scorns salt meat (etc.) in false expectation of other booty. J2066.4
• Wolf waits in vain for the nurse to throw away the child. She has threatened to throw the child to the wolf. J2066.5
• Dog waits to be hit with meat. A butcher has threatened to hit him with a piece of meat. J2066.6
• Dog follows washerwoman with bundle hoping for meat. J2066.6.1
• Dupe waits for rear wheels of wagon to overtake front wheels. Is told that money is thus made. J2066.7
• Hare waits in vain for leaves to fall from palm tree. J2066.8
• Hare waits in vain for man's hand to fall off. He sees it dangling. J2066.9
• Sacrifice equal to the reward. J2067
• Sacrifice of one son to get another. A woman plans to sacrifice her only son so that the gods will permit her to give birth to another son. J2067.1
• Absurd wishes. J2070
• Three foolish wishes. Three wishes will be granted: used up foolishly. J2071
• Short-sighted wish. J2072
• Short-sighted wish: Midas's touch. Everything to turn to gold. J2072.1
• Short-sighted wish: grain to grow without beards. Birds eat it up. J2072.2
• Short-sighted wish: all he pulls on will follow. He blows his nose and it pulls out long. J2072.3
• A man without a stomach. The man complains that he is a mere slave of his stomach. His wish is granted and the stomach taken away from him. He discovers soon that life has become very uninteresting to him, and recovers his stomach again. J2072.4
• Short-sighted wish: camel wishes a long neck. Killed by jackals. J2072.5
• Old woman demands something that she would remember all her life: her nose cut off. J2072.6
• Same wishes used wisely and foolishly. Given to two persons with opposite results. J2073
• Wise and foolish wish: keep doing all day what you begin. One begins pulling linen out of a box; other in anger begins throwing water on the pig and must do so all day. J2073.1
• Wise and foolish wish: help in whatever one is doing. One gets help in work, other in striking his wife (etc.). J2073.1.1
• Twice the wish to the enemy. (The covetous and the envious). A can have a wish, but B will get twice the wish. A wishes that he may lose an eye, so that B may be blind. J2074
• The transferred wish. A husband, given three wishes, transfers one to his wife, who wastes it on a trifle; in his anger he wishes the article in her body and must use the third to get it out. J2075
• Transferred wish wisely used as well as unwisely. (J2075 contrasted with a married couple in which the wish is wisely used by the wife.) J2075.1
• Two transferred wishes used unwisely: redeemed by wise use of third. Wife uses two transferred wishes selfishly. Husband kills wife and uses remaining wish to his advantage. J2075.2
• Woman disdainfully throws away pills; punished with sores on body, must use the pills to restore herself. J2075.3
• Wife granted wish for beauty, elopes with prince. Husband wishes her into a pig; son must use third wish to restore her. J2075.4
• Absurdly modest wish. Granted any wish, the fool chooses a trifle. J2076
• Absurdly modest wish: no lights on certain night except in her own house. J2076.1
• Absurd wishes – miscellaneous. J2079
• Wife wishes to be turned to gold. J2079.1
• Foolish wish: to destroy all flies and spiders. J2079.2
• Foolish bargains. J2080
• Foolish bargain: progressive type. J2081
• Foolish bargain: horse for cow, cow for hog, etc. Finally nothing left. J2081.1
• Foolish bargain: good fish for worthless shell; shell with pearl in it for small fish. J2081.2
• 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). J2081.3
• Fools sent to buy cow procure a monkey instead. J2081.4
• Squaring accounts by shaving the wife. A numskull has paid twice the regular amount for a shave. The barber shaves the wife. J2082
• The foolish attempt to cheat the buyer. J2083
• One-third for the price of one-fourth. In the grain sale the fool sells a third of a cask for the price of a fourth, thinking that he is cheating the buyer. J2083.1
• Two for the price of one. The fool sells two fox-skins pulled into each other. J2083.2
• Seller of fox skins mixes otter skins with them. Thinks to cheat the buyer. J2083.3
• Ten for the price of nine. A fool buys nine eggs and sells ten for the same price. He says that business is improving. J2083.4
• A heaping measure given for a level measure. J2083.5
• Selling more yards of goods for the money than they received. J2083.6
• Foolish reward offered. J2085
• Lost ass, saddle, and bridle offered as reward to the finder. J2085.1
• Man trades his only horse for a set of harness. J2085.1.1
• The foolish pawn. The woman sells cows and gets one of them back as a pledge for the unpaid purchase price. J2086
• The persuasive auctioneer. The auctioneer praises the man's worthless cow so much in his speech that the man takes her back himself. J2087
• The considerate seller. A numskull having an over-short turban for sale at auction warns the prospective buyer that it is too short. J2088
• The fool advises the buyer that the horse is worth little or his father would not sell it. J2088.1
• Seller advises buyer that cow is a thief. J2088.2
• 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. J2091
• Fool hides treasure and leaves sign "Here it is." Thief leaves sign "Here it is not." J2091.1
• 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. J2092
• Valuables given away or sold for trifle. J2093
• Numskull gives away the old water bag in which the money is hid. J2093.1
• Woman gives a jewel for a salad. The recipient is also a numskull and doesn't know its value. J2093.2
• Fool ignorant of value of jewel throws it away. J2093.3
• Boy refuses pearls for worthless stones; jeweler recognizes them for what they are. J2093.3.1
• Good timber given for useless because wife says they will have only sickness and trouble. J2093.4
• Sacks of gold and silver traded for sacks of rice. J2093.5
• Gold and jewels sold for trifle. J2093.6
• Expensive wood burned to make charcoal. J2094
• 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. J2095
• Stupid boy convinced that trading all his silver for worthless cup will gain people's respect. J2096
• Foolish bargain: miscellaneous. J2099
• Woman exchanges a horse for a sack of bones. She has been falsely told that the sack is filled with gold. J2099.1
• Remedies worse than the disease. J2100
• Getting rid of the cat. In a land in which cats are not known, one is bought at a great price. It eats many mice. By misunderstanding, they think the cat is a monster. In order to get rid of it they set the house on fire. J2101
• Lighting the cat's tail. Woman wishing to punish a cat fastens cotton to its tail and lights it. The whole village is burnt. J2101.1
• Expensive means of being rid of insects. J2102
• Sleeping in shoes to avoid insect bites. J2102.1
• Snake rids himself of wasps: he lets himself be run over by a cart wheel along with them. J2102.2
• Bald man aims at a fly: hurts his head. J2102.3
• House burned down to rid it of insects. J2102.4
• House burned down to get rid of lizard. J2102.4.1
• Burning the wasp nest. The house catches fire and burns. J2102.5
• Clothes burned to rid them of insects. J2102.6
• Crop burned to rid it of insects. J2102.7
• Frogs to eat insects, snakes to eat frogs. Snakes eat numskull's family. J2102.8
• Expensive extermination of rodents. J2103
• The cat to guard the cheese. A farmer troubled with mice eating his cheese places a cat in the tub with the cheese. She eats the mice and the cheese. J2103.1
• The cat and the eel-pie. Woman puts cat in flour bin to catch a mouse. The cat eats the pie in the bin and loses interest in the mouse. J2103.1.1
• Pursuing the rabbit who harmed the garden. Peasant asks a nobleman's help against a rabbit. The nobleman chases the rabbit on horseback for five days and ruins the peasant's crop. J2103.2
• King ruins his garden to get rid of viper. J2103.2.1
• House burned down to get rid of rats. (Cf. J2102.4.1.) J2103.3
• Moving the fireplace. When it gives too much heat numskulls decide to move it instead of putting out the fire. J2104
• Cleaning the church by moving it. A cow fouls a church. Numskulls try to move the church with ropes. J2104.1
• Protecting the prince's slumber. To keep croaking frogs from disturbing him, the fools shoot at the frogs all night. J2105
• Man kills self to make quarrelsome wife a widow. J2106
• Taming the bull by cutting off his horns. It makes him the more violent. J2107
• Punishing the dog by feeding him. A man is bitten by a dog. On the advice of an old woman he rubs bread on the wound and gives it to the dog. All dogs will bite him if they thus get double reward. J2108
• Gray hair cured by pulling it out so that the person is bald. J2112
• Young wife pulls out his gray hairs; old wife his black. Soon all are gone. J2112.1
• Getting the calf's head out of the pot. A calf gets its head caught in a pot. A fool cuts off the calf's head and then breaks the pot to get it out. J2113
• Man strikes off donkey's head to punish it. J2113.1
• Snakes in pond to be killed: eels also killed. J2114
• Fools take fatal overdose of medicine. J2115
• Remedies worse than the disease – miscellaneous. J2119
• Nose cut off to get it out of the light. J2119.1
• Improving the wife's face by cutting off her nose. J2119.1.1
• Straight path not always shortest. (Cf. J21.5.) J2119.2
• Taking the short-cut. Farmer takes a few feet off his journey and lifts a wheelbarrow over 22 stiles in so doing. J2119.2.1
• One contestant chooses straight path through stones; other circles about and wins. J2119.2.2
• Noodles push parents over a rock as a favor to them. J2119.3
• Numskulls bore hole in boat in order to make water run out. J2119.4
• Stupid giant, seeing how fat he has become, wants to eat himself up. J2119.5
• How to save the rice. Boy has rice in joined hands and arms around a pillar. Afraid to move lest rice be lost. Roof is removed and boy lifted over pillar. J2119.6
• Stupid cowherds apply hot iron to temples of unconscious man to revive him. J2119.7
• Cow tied tight with stones in order not to blow away, but is unable to do all others things too. J2119.8
• Hero beheads old woman who asks him to cure her of old age. J2119.9
• Disregard of danger to objects (or animals). J2120
• Drying snow on the stove. J2121
• Candle put in the stove to dry: melts. J2122
• Sunlight carried into windowless house in baskets. When this plan does not succeed, they gradually pull down the house to get light. J2123
• Putting the fish aside for Easter. They are put in one big pool, but an eel eats them up. J2124
• Numskull sends meat home through kite (bird); kite devours it. J2124.1
• Guarding chickens from the fox. Numskull ties their beaks and weights them down in the river with stones. J2125
• Numskull to water roots of tree. Digs up the tree to find the roots. J2126
• Trees cut down to gather fruit. Penzer V 70f. J2126.1
• Looking for the hole. Numskull is to carry a can of oil with especial care since it has a little hole in it. In order to find the hole he turns the can about and lets all the oil run out. J2127
• Disregard of danger to objects or animals – miscellaneous. J2129
• Fools make a boat go over a precipice. J2129.1
• Quarreling heirs destroy the entire property involved. J2129.2
• Getting all the eggs at once. A peasant kills his hen so that he can immediately get all the eggs she will lay during the next year. J2129.3
• Fool sticks needle in haywagon. He has been told to stick it in his sleeve. It is lost. J2129.4
• Old shoes patched with new. J2129.5
• Keeping rain from the trunks. Numskulls take out the clothing and cover the trunks to keep rain off. J2129.6
• Horse drawn across ice till skin is rubbed off. J2129.7
• Fool sows his mother's seed rice on other people's fields. J2129.8
• Foolish disregard of personal danger. J2130
• Numskull injured. J2131
• Numskulls try to kill mosquitoes with bows and arrows: only injure themselves. J2131.0.1
• Numskull beaten. J2131.1
• Numskull tries to preach while the priest is preaching: beaten. J2131.1.1
• Numskull stung. J2131.2
• Bees caught in sack which is opened at home. J2131.2.1
• Numskull injures his limbs. J2131.3
• Girl hacks off her heel to get shoe on. J2131.3.1
• Fool cuts off his arms to wear sleeveless sweater. J2131.3.1.1
• Dupe persuaded to cut off part of his own body. J2131.3.2
• Man lays piece of wood on his leg to saw it: saws leg off. J2131.3.3
• Numskull puts out his eyes. J2131.4
• Looking through the gun barrel. The numskull (stupid ogre) is shot. J2131.4.1
• Numskull gets his head caught. (Cf. J2136.6.) J2131.5
• Trickster puts on buffalo skull: gets head caught. J2131.5.1
• Numskull licks out pot: gets it caught on his head. J2131.5.2
• Numskull sticks his head in the branches of a tree. J2131.5.3
• Numskull sticks his head into the hole of a millstone. It rolls into the lake. J2131.5.4