The wise and the foolish

3,525 motifs · page 16 of 18

• Man prefers small oysters, since he will get more to the hundred. J2213.8
• Numskull finds that one feather makes a hard pillow, thinks a sackful would be unbearable. J2213.9
• Absurd generalization from a particular incident. J2214
• Peas will burn. Fool warns those who ride through a field of peas. "You will burn your horses' feet. I burned my mouth with hot peas the other day." J2214.1
• Conclusion: youth and age are alike. Reason: he tried in vain as a youth to lift a certain stone; he has also tried in vain as an old man. J2214.2
• Waiting at the well for the thief. A thief has stolen a salted cheese. Since one always goes to the well after eating salted cheese, the thief will also come. J2214.3
• Waiting in the graveyard for the thief. He must eventually come here. J2214.3.1
• Waiting for the thief to return for the bolster. After the cover is stolen, the numskulls conclude that the thief will certainly return for the bolster. J2214.3.2
• Waiting for the thieves to return for invoice of goods stolen. J2214.3.3
• Human milk as best diet (for baby). Fool therefore will take nothing but milk from his wife and starves the baby. J2214.4
• Man is servant of the animals (for he supplies feed for them). Fish so reason. J2214.5
• Men must have been calves once (for they are fond of milk). Fish so reason. (Cf. B233.1.) J2214.6
• Oil is cheap (or spilling oil is good luck). Man hearing this breaks oil vessels. J2214.7
• Fool carries his wife to the remedy instead of the opposite. J2214.8
• Dipping into cold water to cure fever, since hot iron is so cooled. J2214.9
• Starving colt fierce from hunger, but fool refuses to feed it lest it become fiercer. J2214.10
• England must be full of widows. So concludes widow's daughter, who makes her living by spinning, when she sees so much warm goods from England. J2214.11
• False judgment of distance in clear atmosphere of mountain area. J2214.12
• Newcomer undresses to swim a five-foot stream. He has walked all morning toward a mountain that seems only five miles away, but which is actually sixty miles from his starting point. J2214.12.1
• Absurd reasoning about God. J2215
• God's wastefulness. A man is robbed and later the same day is given much money. He complains to God, "What was the use of taking from me what you were going to give back to me after stealing from another?" J2215.1
• The servant of God beaten. A man who says that he is the servant of so and so is treated with great consideration. His companion, who says that he is a servant of God is put to work. He cannot understand why God's servant should not be more important than the other. J2215.2
• Man honored above God: the dead hen. A fool finds a dead hen and cooks it and serves it for dinner. When reproached he says "How should it be unclean when God has killed it instead of men?" J2215.3
• Fool waits for God to provide. Nearly starves. J2215.4
• God blamed for scarcity of food. J2215.4.1
• God blamed for heavy rain. Since he is an old man he should have known that more rain was unwelcome. J2215.5
• God blamed for letting pumpkin vines produce larger fruit than nut trees. J2215.6
• Poor man thinks idol in temple is poorer than he since it is naked. J2216
• Many times the superlative. J2217
• Man says: "That's the best horse in all England, but I have one in my stable worth ten of him. (Cf. J1743.1.) J2217.1
• Man is describing lakes. "One is bottomless; the other is deeper than that." J2217.2
• Other logical absurdities. J2220
• How does he know? A rustic refuses to believe reports about hell from a priest who has not been there. J2221
• The inconvenience of having a father: The numskull to his father: "If you had never been born I would get my grandfather's estate." J2222
• The thief as discoverer. The fool lies still as the thief enters the house, hoping that the thief may find something so that he can take it back from the thief. J2223
• Robbed man blames thief for not warning him so that he could have witnesses to the theft. J2223.1
• Taking the seed out at night. Numskull plants seed in daytime and takes it out at night. "Man must guard his treasures" (or "Growing in the daytime is enough"). J2224
• Three reasons for not giving alms. (1) Student has only one eye: Aristotle says to beware of those whom nature has marked. (2) Student comes from Bremen: no one of consequence comes from there. (3) His name is Nicholas: no one with that name can succeed. J2225
• Learn to swim before going into the water. J2226
• Let them eat cake. The queen has been told that the peasants have no bread. J2227
• King ignorant of famine says the people can live on pulse (sugar) and rice. J2227.1
• Loss of eating contest because of weak legs. The sheep thinks that that is the reason for loss of the contest. J2228
• Why can't we have holidays the year round? J2231
• Imitation and the real pig. Imitator of the pig's cries applauded. Fool brings real pig but fails. J2232
• Logically absurd defenses. Thief brought to judgment for breaking into house blames mason for building poor house. Mason blames maker of mortar, who blames potter, who blames pretty woman who diverted his attention. She blames goldsmith who caused her to go for her earrings. Goldsmith has no one to blame but he is too old to make a good execution. Hence a shopkeeper across the way is convicted. J2233
• Innocent man executed because his neck fits the noose (or the like). J2233.1
• Men hang old bedridden weaver instead of young, valuable member of colony after the young man has accidentally killed an Indian. The Indian tribe demands punishment. J2233.1.1
• "Is that you or your brother?" J2234
• Would have shot himself. Fool shoots full of holes a garment left out at night to dry. "It is a good thing I did not have it on or I would have shot myself." J2235
• Only fault with the house. The latrine is too small for the dining room table to go in. J2236
• The bathroom in the minaret. The fool can sing in the small bathroom but cannot be heard from the minaret. He wants a bathroom built on the minaret so that his voice will carry. J2237
• Book gives wisdom. A man believes himself wise because he has a book which he uses but does not understand. J2238
• The doctor no longer needed. As the fool starts for the doctor the wife changes her mind. He continues to the doctor so as to tell him about it and to say that now he need not come. J2241
• Useless trip to find a name the wife already knew. Fool goes to astrologer for child's name, but forgets it on way home. Later wife happens to use the word and reminds him. But he cannot see the use of the trip when she already knew this word. J2241.1
• Servant sent to doctor finds trip futile. Doctor may not be in and, if he is there, he may not give the medicine. He may give the medicine but it may not have any effect; or, if it does have any, he has to die someday anyway and the medicine will not prevent him from dying. J2241.2
• Carrying his own message. A man who is away from home writes a letter to his wife but can find no messenger. He delivers the letter himself and then goes on back to where he has been. J2242
• Scribe cannot write a letter because he has bad leg. Must carry letter in person since no one else can read it. J2242.1
• Fool writes letter very slowly: recipient cannot read fast. J2242.2
• Fool sleeps so as to avoid idleness. J2243
• Climb down as you climb up. A peasant falls out of a tree. A neighbor advises him not to climb trees. Another suggests that he always climb down a tree with the same skill and rapidity that he climbed up. J2244
• Every fruit tasted. Fool tastes every piece of fruit before giving it to his master. J2245
• Fools reprove each other for speaking at prayers. They speak while doing so. J2254
• Preliminary drawing of swords. Travelers say they will not have time to do so when attacked. J2255
• Boy cannot read a book written with smaller letters than those he was reading at school. J2258
• Absurd scientific theories – general. J2260
• Absurd astronomical theories. J2270
• Absurd theories concerning the moon. J2271
• The local moon. Numskull greets old moon as if it were new. "I haven't seen it before, for I have just come to the city." (Each town thought to have a different moon.) J2271.1
• What becomes of the old moon? J2271.2
• Lightning made from the old moon. J2271.2.1
• Stars made from the old moon. J2271.2.2
• Numskulls try to throw the moon over a cliff. J2271.3
• Numskulls attempt to capture moon and bring it home in a sledge. They get to the top of the hill a few minutes too late to reach it. J2271.4
• Absurd theories concerning the sun. J2272
• Chanticleer believes that his crowing makes the sun rise. Disappointed when it rises without his aid. J2272.1
• Is today's sun the same as yesterday's? J2272.2
• Fools believe sun sleeps at certain woman's house. J2272.3
• Absurd theories concerning the sky. J2273
• Bird thinks that the sky will fall if he does not support it. J2273.1
• Absurd theories about the earth. J2274
• Why everyone doesn't live in the same place. The earth would become unbalanced. J2274.1
• Same air at home as abroad. Because the stars are the same. J2274.2
• Same climate at home and abroad. Because his members look the same in the two places. J2274.3
• Absurd theories about the stars. J2275
• Falling star supposed to have been shot down by astronomer. J2275.1
• Absurd theories concerning time. J2276
• Dinner time comes soon in mountains because of rare atmosphere. J2276.1
• Absurd theories about clouds. J2277
• Clouds supposed to come from smoke. J2277.1
• Other absurd scientific theories. J2280
• How the fishes got there. Guests of host who waters his wine put little fishes into the wine jug. "Now I confess that I put water into the wine; otherwise the fishes could not be there." J2281
• A drunkard cannot drown. A drunken man falls overboard but the skipper refuses to pick him up. "A man who is soaked in wine cannot drown. No part of his body will absorb water." J2282
• The four-footed bishop. A fool finding a nun in bed with a bishop and not seeing her face concludes that the bishop must have four feet and so announces it. J2283
• What killed the wolf. Peasants find a dead wolf and debate what killed it. A learned man shows that it froze internally from eating cold flesh. J2284
• Foolish interpretation of omens. J2285
• Fool believing in omens refuses to prepare for death. Bird has chirped five times, which he thinks guarantees him five more years to live. J2285.1
• Belief that island may be towed by ships to new location. J2287
• Gullible fools. J2300
• Gullible husbands. (Cf. J2311.0.1., J2311.2, J2311.7, J2312, J2313, J2314, J2315, J2316, J2324, J2331.) J2301
• Husband takes back faithless wife on her oath to be faithful. J2301.1
• His wife has become a widow. Numskull buys cloth used only by widows and is therefore convinced. J2301.2
• Gullible husband removes from wife's garment dust gathered while she lies with another man. J2301.3
• Gullible wives. J2302
• Gullible mother. J2303
• Nature of gullibility. J2310
• Person made to believe that he is dead. J2311
• Wife makes her husband believe that he is dead. (Cf. J2301.) J2311.0.1
• Numskull is told that he is to die when his horse breaks wind three times. When this happens he lies down for dead. J2311.1
• Man believes he is to die when he breaks wind. Lies down for dead. J2311.1.1
• Numskull is told that he will die when his mouth bleeds. J2311.1.2
• Man believes, he will die when water falls on his head. J2311.1.3
• Numskull believes he is dead when pumpkin falls on his head. J2311.1.3.1
• Man believes he will die when he gets a scarlet thread on his coat. J2311.1.4
• Fool, told yellowing soles of his feet sure sign he is going to die, digs his grave and lies in it. J2311.1.5
• The "poisoned" pot. The wife tells the husband that a certain pot of preserves is poison. He decides to kill himself and eats the preserves. He believes that he is poisoned and lies down for dead. J2311.2
• Sham revenant. A man takes refuge from robbers in an open grave. Robbers see him and ask what he is doing. "It is my grave. I went out to get a breath of air." J2311.3
• The dead man speaks up. A numskull who has lain down thinking he is dead is carried off in a bier. The carriers lose their way. He speaks up, "I always went that way when I was alive." J2311.4
• The dead man in spite of himself. Neighbors who have heard of the numskull's death insist on the funeral although he is alive and well. He is persuaded and is carried on a bier. They meet a busy man whom they try to persuade to join them. He pleads business. The "dead" man speaks: "It's no use, friend, to try to dissuade them." J2311.5
• Supposed dead man on bier threatens his bearers. J2311.5.1
• Sham-dead man punished. A numskull lies in an old grave to see the Day of Judgment. He hears bells and thinks that the Last Day has come. He is beaten by mule-drivers when he tells them that he is a dead man. He returns home and tells his wife that he returns from the dead. "How goes it in heaven?" "For one thing, avoid mule-drivers." J2311.6
• Cold hands and feet for the dead man. His wife has told him that one tells a dead person by his cold hands and feet. He freezes his feet and hands and lies down for dead. Wolves eat his ass. "Lucky for you that his master is dead!" J2311.7
• Parents made to believe that they are dead and are married to each other again. J2311.8
• Foolish peasants carry couple to burial; when "corpses" speak they flee in terror. J2311.9
• Drunken man insists that he be beheaded. Is struck with the flat of his sword. He thinks he is dead. J2311.10
• Idiot tells his mother he has been dead twelve years. J2311.11
• Supposed dead man roused with whip. J2311.12
• Naked person made to believe that he is clothed. J2312
• Layman made to believe that he is a monk. J2314
• Wife persuades husband that she has returned immediately. She goes to a neighbor's to cook a fish. She is gone a week. She gets a new fish and cooks it and returns home with the hot fish. She convinces her husband of her short absence. J2315
• Wife leaves home, offers self to lover. Returning persuades husband that she has not been away. J2315.1
• Gullible husb and made to believe he has cut off his wife's nose. She, in another house, has had her nose cut off by mistake. She makes him believe he has done it by making him angry enough to throw a razor at her. When he throws the razor she claims it has cut off her nose. J2315.2
• Husband made to believe that his house has moved during his absence. The wife and her confederates transform the house into an inn with tables, signs, drinkers, etc. The husband cannot find his house. J2316
• Man cannot recognize his own house which has been turned into a mansion by emperor. J2316.1
• Well man made to believe that he is sick. J2317
• Man thinks that he has diabetes. Rascals have sewed his trouser leg till it is too tight. J2317.1
• Numskull convinced that he is a thief. An article is stolen. Declared that whoever does not eat all his cheese is the thief. A stone is put in the numskull's cheese so that he cannot eat it all. He admits the theft. J2318
• Man made to believe that he is pregnant (has borne child). J2321
• Parson made to believe that he will bear a calf. In having his urine examined by a doctor, a cow's is substituted by mistake. (Or he dreams that he has borne a calf.) When a calf comes into the house he thinks that he has borne it. (Cf. J1734.1, K1955.2.) J2321.1
• Man thinks he has given birth to a child by letting wind. J2321.2
• Husband makes wife and mother-in-law believe he will bear a sheep. His wife was pregnant when he married her. J2321.3
• Drunken man made to believe that he has been to heaven and hell. He is dressed up as a rich lord and given rich food and drink. When put back into his own clothes he thinks that he has been to heaven. J2322
• Numskull believes that he is married to a man. Two men's hands joined in fun with words "I marry you." Fool thinks that he must get a bishop to annul the marriage. J2323
• Wife persuades her husband to have a good tooth pulled. J2324
• Husband made to believe that yarn has changed to tow through his carelessness. Thus his lazy wife is relieved from spinning. J2325
• Fool believes gold in bag turns to ashes because of child's urinating on it. Actually bag contained only ashes. J2325.1
• The student from paradise. A student tells a woman that he comes from Paris. She understands him to say from paradise and gives him money and goods to take to her husband. J2326
• Foolish woman gives swindler money for her parents in heaven. J2326.1
• Dream explained as a dead father's demand for horses. Dupe gives them to trickster. J2326.2
• Emperor wants to travel to paradise. Blindfolded and put on an ass. J2326.3
• Alleged messenger from relatives in distress given goods to deliver. J2326.4
• Man who asks for good weather given a box full of hornets. He thinks that it is filled with the weather. J2327
• The moving church tower. To see whether the church is moving someone lays down his coat in front of it. It is stolen. They think that the church has passed over it. J2328
• Numskull with unimportant office boasts of it. J2331
• Proud sheriff has only nine farmers in his jurisdiction. J2331.1
• Fool appointed to fictitious office boasts of it. "Administrador de la yesca." J2331.2
• Fool locked in dark room made to believe that it is continuous night. J2332
• The sledges turned in the direction of the journey. At night turned around by a joker. J2333
• Master persuaded to buy big fish since small ones creep out of all parts of his body. J2334
• The stag with iron shoes. Hunters shoot a stag and hide it. Another who sees puts a dead ass in the bag instead. When the bag is opened, one cries, "Oh Jesus, we have shot a stag with iron shoes!" J2335
• Jewess makes parents believe that she is to give birth to the Messiah. She bears a girl. J2336
• Dupe persuaded that he is invisible. J2337
• Adulteress makes husband believe that the birth of her mulatto child has been due to suggestion. J2338
• Near-sighted man persuaded by doctor that he can see. J2341
• Husband refuses to believe in wife's infidelity. J2342
• Husband refuses to believe that his wife is unfaithful, even when she is caught in the act. J2342.1
• Husband away three years accepts children born in his absence as his own. J2342.2
• Woman gives birth to child fourteen months after husband's departure. The latter is made to believe it is legitimate. J2342.2.1
• Cuckolded "as per instructions." Woman tells husband that she has become pregnant during his absence according to his own instructions. J2342.2.2
• She knows best: woman denies accusation of adultery. Husband dismisses the truthful accusers saying that she knows her shortcomings better than anyone else, and she denies it. J2342.3
• Husband praises wife's fidelity. Rascal tests it and finds it lacking. J2342.4
• Only husband remains ignorant about his wife's infidelity. J2342.5
• Fool kissed in sleep. Dreams he is being kissed by fairy. Is really a pig. J2345
• Fool's errand. An apprentice, or newcomer or ignorant person, etc., is sent for absurd or misleading or nonexistent object or on a ridiculous quest. J2346
• Occupational tricks on new employees. J2347
• Dupe is persuaded that money will grow if he buries it. J2348
• Nature of gullibility – miscellaneous. J2349
• Dupe is made to believe horse will fly. J2349.1
• Wife makes husband believe that her paramour is Death. J2349.2
• Credulous king reads about ocean of milk and its properties. J2349.3
• The woman who asked for news from home. Gets many impossible answers, which she believes. E.g., "The cock has become sexton." – "Yes, that is why he sang so well in the morning." J2349.4
• Animal betrays himself to his enemies by talking. J2351
• Fox holds conversation with his members, attracts attention, and is caught. He scolds in turn his feet, eyes, ears, and tail. In his excitement he sticks out his tail from his hiding place. J2351.1
• Hidden wolf gives himself away by talking. J2351.2
• Dupe loses booty through singing. J2351.3
• Wolf (bear) boasts of having eaten horses. When the horse strikes sparks with his hoofs the lion is frightened and picks up the boastful wolf to show him the horse. He squeezes the wolf to death. J2351.4
• Talkative man betrays his companion. When his faults are pointed out he maintains that he is better than his companion, who is immediately investigated. J2352
• His brother cannot pray either. One brother receives the sacrament; the other is refused it because he cannot pray. He replies that his brother cannot pray either and thus deprives him also of the sacrament. J2352.1
• The wife multiplies the secret. To prove that a woman cannot keep a secret the man tells his wife that a crow has flown out of his belly (or that he has laid an egg). She tells her neighbor that two crows have flown. Soon he hears from his neighbors that there were fifty crows. J2353
• Foolish boasts get man into trouble. Man boasts to boss that his brother can do twice the work he does. The boss hires him. The two brothers tell him their father can do as much work in a day as the boys can do in a week. The boss fires them, tells them to send their father to work for him. (Cf. H915, H916, N455.4.) J2353.1
• Numskull talks about his secret instructions and thus allows himself to be cheated. Told not to serve a man with a red beard or to keep sausage for the long winter, etc. J2355
• Fool loses magic objects by talking about them. J2355.1
• Boy talks about his secret instructions and brings his father's theft to light. He is to avoid his companions lest they smell what he has been eating. J2355.2
• Fool's talking causes himself and companions to be robbed. Thieves stumble over him as he lies on the ground. "What is this, a log?" The fool: "Does a log have five annas in its pocket?" When they have robbed him he says, "Ask the merchant in the tree if my money is good." They rob the merchant. J2356
• Tortoise speaks and loses his hold on the stick. He is being carried through the air by a bird. J2357
• Young heir too frank in celebrating his father's death. He says to the mourners, "When your fathers die, I too will come and lament their departure." They brand him as a fool. J2358
• Talkative animals incense master. He gives them twice-threshed straw to eat as punishment. J2362
• Numskull amuses with his discursive nonsense. J2363
• Incognito mistress breaks off relations when she overhears the lover discussing the adventure. J2364
• Fool discloses woman's adultery; lover kills him. J2365
• Warrior reveals camping place. Wishes his enemies to know that he is not afraid. Enemies go there before him. J2366