637 motifs match “fool” — showing the first 100; narrow the words for the rest  ·  back to the chapters

• Twin culture heroes – one foolish, one clever. (Cf. A525.) A515.1.1.2
• Men and animals readjust span of life. At first, thirty years are given to all animals and to man. For the animals it is too long, for man too short. Man is given a portion of animals' lives. Years 1–30 vigorous (man's own); 30–48 burdens and blows (ass's); 48–60 no teeth (dog's); 60–70 foolish (monkey's). A1321
• Bad women from transformed hog and goose. Peter, having only one daughter, foolishly promises her to three men. He asks the Lord to create two others. This request is granted. The first creature he meets on two successive mornings he is to greet, and they will be transformed. He meets a hog and a goose. His two new daughters have these characteristics. A1371.3
• Grave (of man) upon which no women can look without foolish laugh or "sine crepitu ventris eius." C181.7
• Magic object acquired through foolish bargain. D837
• Magic object exchanged for worthless. Foolish brother (wife) exchanges old object for new. D871.1
• Laughing fish reveals unjust judgment. A severe judgment is rendered for a small offence. As the convicted man is being led away, a dead (dried) fish is heard to laugh. The fish reveals that he has laughed at the foolishness of the judge who, while he punishes minor offences severely, is unable to see the capital crimes in his own household. (Cf. D1281.) D1318.2.1
• Magic object makes person foolish. D1353
• Magic rain makes people foolish. All on whom it falls act like fools. (Cf. D902.) D1353.1
• King and fool identical in appearance. F577.3
• Demons fool men in their dreams. (Cf. G303.11.1.) G302.9.6
• Princess brought to laughter by foolish actions of hero. H341.3
• Tasks assigned because of mother's foolish boasting. The mother foolishly boasts to the king that the daughter can perform an impossible task (often spinning). H914
• Tasks assigned because of girl's (boy's) own foolish boast. H915
• Tasks imposed because of wife's foolish boast. H916.1
• Task imposed because of girl's foolish boast. H916.2
• Quest for the greatest of fools. H1312
• Fools learn to be peaceable. Two fools in the habit of striking people are brought together when they strike each other until they appreciate the value of peace. J24
• Boy saves life by showing father foolishness of plowing up his crop. Father has been persuaded to kill child. J92
• Fool digs holes in edge of road. Only those departing from straight path will fall in. Truth of principle later seen. J95
• Wisdom from fools. J156
• Wisdom from fool: make peace before rather than after the war. J156.1
• Wisdom from fool: absurdity of tight-rope walker's performance. J156.2
• Wisdom from fool: the present returned. Nobleman gives fool a present; he is to give it to no one who is not a greater fool. Master is dying; doctor tells fool that master is going to take long journey. Since master is making no preparation, fool gives him the present. Master thus brought to repentance. J156.3
• Wisdom from fool: heaven refused. Fool says he does not want to go to heaven for he wants to stay with his master, who everyone says is going to hell. Master repents. J156.4
• Fool is told to get a pottle of brains. He tries to buy them. He finally learns that advice was to marry a clever girl. J163.2.1
• Wisdom from continual reminder of foolishness in the past. Unjust judge skinned and his skin stretched over a footstool kept in the presence of judges, so as to remind them to be just. J167
• King questions six doctors: what must you most marvel at on earth? That those who are most respected are the biggest fools. J171.2.4
• Crow flying away says, "A wise man remains not in the place of calamity; but a fool stays there, and sups fear and sorrow." J171.3.1
• Choice: foolish son always with him or four wise daughters who will leave him. Latter chosen. J226.3
• Take money instead of revenge. Fool advises uncle, in letter which he did not send, to take money from wife's paramour instead of revenge. J229.11
• A bird in the hand foolishly given away in hope of greater gain. J321.1
• Foolish association of young and old. J445
• Foolish youth in love with ugly old mistress. J445.1
• Foolish marriage of old man and young girl. J445.2
• Deer, opossum, and snake each render indispensable aid to man. Foolishly debate their usefulness. J461.4
• Fool given the truth on his back. He tells his master what the servants have done during his absence. The servants whip him on his bare back, saying at each blow, "That is the truth." When the master returns and tells the fool to tell the truth, the latter replies, "There is nothing worse on earth than the truth." J551.2
• Noblemen who quarreled over a device. Wiser of the two shows foolishness of such a fight. J552.1
• Fool fasts on roof till he becomes so weak he falls off. J565.1
• Answer questions of a fool the next day. J571.7
• Foolishness of noise-making when enemies overhear. J581
• Foolishness of premature coming out of hiding. J582
• Foolishness of surrendering weapons. J642
• Foolishness of king's taking a washerman for chief minister; washerman makes no preparation for war and kingdom is conquered. [Inadvertant duplication of U129.3.] J677
• Foolishness of alliances with the weak. J682
• Foolishness of attacking real allies. J683
• Foolishness of taking on too strong a partner: crow crowds sparrow out of its nest. J684.2
• Noseless man persuades fools to cut off noses. J758.1.1
• Crane advises fool to empty reservoir so he can reap all grain. Crane eats fish left at bottom. J758.2
• Man plays fool to protect himself in dealing with king. J822
• Ass foolish to kick against the pricks. J833
• Foolish boast of ancestry by lowly. J954
• Foolish dog finds treasure and dies rather than leave it. J1061.3
• Disguised real wife orders motley wear for her husband when he goes to fetch new bride-to-be: prospective father-in-law takes him for a fool and real wife reveals herself to husband. J1112.1.1
• Foolish person becomes clever. J1116
• Ninety-nine wise men and one fool ordered to pour milk into a tank all at one time: only the fool obeys. J1149.12
• Testimony discredited by inducing witness to talk foolishly. J1151.1
• The sausage rain. (Or rain of figs, fishes, or milk.) A mother in order to discredit testimony of her foolish son who has killed a man makes him believe that it has rained sausages. When he says that he killed the man on the night it rained sausages his testimony is discredited. J1151.1.3
• Clever pleading: youth in court for calling king a fool, proves truth of statement because king allowed self to be duped by alchemist. J1162.4
• Condemned man wins pardon by clever remark. Fool is allowed to jump off cliff (balcony) as punishment. Master expresses surprise that in three trials he has failed to hurl himself from the height. The jester offers the prince four trials. Amused prince pardons the jester. J1181.3
• Dividing three fish among two men. Fools submit problem to trickster who solves problem by taking third fish himself. J1241.3
• Farmer looks at his hay on ground after a rain: "If I was a God, I'd be a God and not a damned fool!" J1261.1.4
• Man calls Saints Peter and Paul fools for enduring poverty if rich abbots can reach heaven, too. J1263.4.2
• The same company of fools. An abbot calls the monks together and asks, "Whom from all you fools can I appoint as steward?" A monk answers, "That should not be difficult since an abbot was found from the same company of fools." J1265.3
• The gift of the fool. Of three brothers the shoemaker makes shoes for the queen and princess; the tailor, clothes; the fool – children. J1272
• His proper title. A peasant goes to a judge and thinking to gain his favor addresses him with high titles. The judge calls him a fool. "I was mistaken, you swine!" J1286
• Bishop and prince. Peasant tells bishop, who rides by with forty horses, that he wonders if St. Kilian at Würzburg is also riding with forty horses. Bishop excuses extravagance by saying that he is also a prince and that it is the prince, not the bishop, who is using the horses. "If the prince should become a fool, what would the bishop do then?" J1289.2
• Will not try to correct them. Pope calls persistent courtier a fool. Latter says that there are people who call the pope the same thing and that he for one will not try to correct them. J1289.3
• Officiousness or foolish questions rebuked. J1300
• How he shall be mourned. Women insist on knowing how a man wants to be mourned when he dies. "Mourn me as a man who was tormented by women talking foolishness." J1301
• Aesop with the lantern. Aesop goes for fire to a neighbor's in the daytime and lights a lantern so as to bring the fire back. Fool asks him what he is hunting for with the lantern in the daytime. "I seek a man" (not a busybody). J1303
• Officiousness or foolish questions rebuked – miscellaneous. J1309
• "Where did dirt go when canal was dug?" Disgusted father-in-law: "I have eaten half and your father half, to have such a fool son-in-law." J1309.3
• Beggar wants bread. A numskull tells his mother that a beggar is below asking for bread. Mother: "Tell him I am not at home." Numskull: "He doesn't want you, he wants bread." J1332
• The burden of two asses. A king and his son hunting on a hot day put their fur coats on the fool's back. King: "You have an ass's load on you." Fool: "Rather the burdens of two asses." J1352.1
• Person asks: "Whose fool are you?" Answer: "I am the Bishop of Durham's fool; whose fool are you?" J1369.4
• The double fool. A numskull caught changing meal from others' sacks into his own. Miller asks him what he is doing. "I am a fool." "Why then don't you put your meal into their sacks?" "I am only a simple fool. If I did that I should be a double fool." J1393
• The fools in the city. Man ordered to number the fools in the city replies, "It is easier to number the wise men." J1443
• The cause of grayness. Fool asked what made him gray-headed replies, "My hair." J1461
• The shoes carried into the tree. Tricksters induce a numskull to climb a tree, planning to steal his shoes. He takes them in his belt with him. "Perhaps I shall find a nearer road home up there and shall need my shoes." J1521.1
• Command would become permanent. A ruler receives gifts from his subjects and later demands them as he due. The fool sets the nobleman's bed on fire. When the nobleman commands him to put the fire out he refuses, since he would ever afterward have to be putting out fires. J1521.3
• Four men's mistress. A husband disguises as a priest to hear his wife's confession. She says that she has been mistress of a servant, a knight, a fool, and a priest; i.e., her husband when he was her servant, and later her knight. He had then been a fool for demanding her confession, and was a priest because he had heard it. J1545.2
• Wife by cleverness wins back fortune overbearing husband has foolishly lost and humbles him. J1545.6
• The bigger fool. When told by servants their master is not at home, man says it is a fool that goes out in such midday heat. Whereupon master sticks his head out of the window, saying "Thou who art moving about at this time art the big fool: I have been seated all day in my house." J1552.1.1.1
• How much the ass cost. As the fool brings the new ass home everyone wants to know how much it cost. He has all publicly assemble and announces just what it cost. J1601
• Fools. J1700
• Town (country) of fools. J1703
• Foolish pundits. J1705.3
• Foolish king. J1705.4
• Association with fools. J1710
• Numskulls go a-travelling. (Cf. J1742.) J1711
• Numskulls quarrel over a greeting. Three men greeted by a stranger. Quarrel as to whom he greeted. "I greeted the biggest fool among you." A contest is held in which tales are told to decide which is the biggest fool. J1712
• Foolish married couples. (Cf. J1701, J1702.) J1713
• Association of wise men with fools. J1714
• A wise man follows a fool against his better judgment. Both are put to death for their foolishness. J1714.1
• The wise man and the rain of fools. A wise man is persuaded to taste water which has turned many persons into fools. He also becomes a fool. J1714.2
• When with fools, act foolish. A wise man refuses to join a foolish crowd who stayed out in an unexpected rain after a long drought. He is punished by them for being a fool. J1714.3
• Forty wise men foretell violent rainstorm. Failing to convince people, they go into a cave. After the shower they come out. The people call them fools. J1714.3.1
• Old man silent in king's presence asks king what he himself does when in company with a fool. [Inadvertant duplication of J1369.5.] J1714.5
• A fool objects to fools as companions. Leaves when placed between two fools at table. J1715