53 motifs match “fools”  ·  back to the chapters

• Magic rain makes people foolish. All on whom it falls act like fools. (Cf. D902.) D1353.1
• 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
• Wisdom from fools. J156
• 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
• Noseless man persuades fools to cut off noses. J758.1.1
• Dividing three fish among two men. Fools submit problem to trickster who solves problem by taking third fish himself. J1241.3
• 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 fools in the city. Man ordered to number the fools in the city replies, "It is easier to number the wise men." J1443
• Fools. J1700
• Town (country) of fools. J1703
• Association with fools. J1710
• Association of wise men with fools. J1714
• 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
• A fool objects to fools as companions. Leaves when placed between two fools at table. J1715
• Fools and the unknown animal. J1736
• Fools do not know what a crayfish is. Shoot it and build a rampart around it. J1736.1
• Fools do not know what an owl is and attack it. J1736.2
• Fools think evening star is morning star. Start morning journey evening before. J1772.7
• Butter cask thought to be a dead man. Fools knock it in two. J1783.1
• Moon's reflection thought to be gold in water. Fools dive for it. J1791.3.3
• Fools see bee's nest reflected in water: try to carry off the well. J1791.9
• Fools think thorn bush doesn't sting at night. J1819.1
• Bishop struck for breaking the peace. At a wedding after a period of silent prayer the bishop begins an antiphony. The fools walks up and strikes the bishop: "You have made this shouting in the church." J1823.2
• Fools send money by rabbit. Since he is a swift runner they expect it to reach the landlord in time. J1881.2.2
• The mad wheelbarrow. Fools chain a wheelbarrow, bitten by a mad dog, lest it bite others. J1887
• The pent cuckoo. Fools build an enclosure to keep in the cuckoo. She flies over the hedge. They say that they have not built the hedge high enough. J1904.2
• Fools try to hedge the cuckoo so that they will have summer the year round (the coming of the first cuckoo being the sign of the coming summer). J1904.2.1
• Fools try to milk male ass. J1905.2
• Fools try to use buffalo tongue as a knife. J1971
• Fools try to fight with man inside of drum who seems to make the noise. Are really pounding each other. J2026
• Fools cast lots for royal purple of queen who is still alive. J2060.4
• Fools sent to buy cow procure a monkey instead. J2081.4
• Protecting the prince's slumber. To keep croaking frogs from disturbing him, the fools shoot at the frogs all night. J2105
• Fools take fatal overdose of medicine. J2115
• Fools make a boat go over a precipice. J2129.1
• Carrying load up hill to roll it down. Fools carry log (millstone) down hill. They realize that they might have rolled it down. They therefore carry it back up hill to roll it down. J2165
• Fools reprove each other for speaking at prayers. They speak while doing so. J2254
• Fools believe sun sleeps at certain woman's house. J2272.3
• Gullible fools. J2300
• Payment with "something or other." Offered money, fools insist on "something or other." J2489.10
• Equal share in the bed. Wishing to prove their equality twelve fools sleep on the ground and put their feet on the one bed provided for the chief. J2526
• Fools frightened by stirring of an animal. J2614
• Fools are frightened at the humming of bees. Think it is a drum. J2614.1
• Fools frightened at the flight of a quail. When they hear "whirr!" the army flees. J2614.2
• Fools try to frighten one another, but get scared themselves and both flee. J2632
• Trickster feigns ability to influence the sun; sells services. Sun to shine on fools' backs as they go to town in morning and return in afternoon. K154
• Madmen (fools, professional fools). P192
• Poets and fools closely allied. P427.7.2.1.1
• Humor of disability. Besides the motifs which follow, the entire series of motifs concerning fools (J1700–J2799) properly belongs here as well as where it is given. X100