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Motifs
- Faithful animal doesn't allow anybody to come near to master's corpse. B301.1.3
- Man senseless from grief at hearing of father's death; one doesn't feel that he cuts himself with his knife, the other presses dice so that he bleeds. F1041.21.5
- Test of resourcefulness: carrying wolf, goat, and cabbage across stream. Man is to set across a stream, in a boat that will hold himself and only one other object, a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. He must do this so that the wolf doesn't eat the goat, nor the goat the cabbage. Two solutions: (1) (a) take goat over, (b) take wolf over and goat back, (c) take cabbage over, (d) take goat over; (2) (a) take goat over, (b) take cabbage over and goat back, (c) take wolf over, (d) take goat over. H506.3
- Fire burns man who doesn't understand it. Useful when one knows how to use it. J834
- 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 little lumps of sugar are sweeter, says the hostess. The servant says that he doesn't like sweets and takes the large lumps. J1341.8
- The hay wagon and the gate. A parson arriving late at a city gate asks if he can get in. Guard sees that he is fat and in fun says that he doesn't know. The parson: "Why not; doesn't the hay wagon get in?" J1411
- Fools think thorn bush doesn't sting at night. J1819.1
- Numskull doesn't recognize his own horse. Finds it only when the rest ride away and he takes the only one left. J2023
- Woman gives a jewel for a salad. The recipient is also a numskull and doesn't know its value. J2093.2
- Why everyone doesn't live in the same place. The earth would become unbalanced. J2274.1
- Sick man offers deity 100 bulls for recovery. When reminded that he does not own so many bulls he explains that he doesn't expect the deity to come to enforce payment. K231.3.5
- Knight doesn't want to go to heaven if there are no hunting dogs there. U134