Wise Folks (Grimm)
Short summary
A peasant named Hans left home for three days, instructing his wife to sell their three cows for no less than two hundred thalers.
When a cattle dealer arrived, Trina let him take two cows with only one left as security, believing he would return with payment.
Hans returned furious but decided to test if anyone could be more foolish. He told his wife:
You are the stupidest goose that ever waddled on God's earth, but I am sorry for you. I will go out into the highways and wait for three days to see if I find anyone who is still stupider
Hans met a woman and convinced her he came from heaven where her dead husband lived. She gave him money and clothes to deliver. Her son arrived and Hans tricked him into giving up his horse. Hans returned home with a horse and money, pleased that stupidity had brought him such profit.
Detailed summary
Division into chapters is editorial.
The peasants instructions and Trinas foolish bargain
A peasant prepared to leave home for three days, taking his hazel stick and giving strict instructions to his wife about selling their three cows. He told her she could make a deal with the cattle-dealer if he came, but only for two hundred thalers and nothing less. Before departing, he warned her sternly about the consequences of foolish behavior.
You once fell on your head when you were a little child, and that affects you even now; but let me tell you this, if you do anything foolish, I will make your back black and blue
His wife Trina assured him she would manage everything properly, though Hans remained skeptical of her abilities. The next morning, the cattle-dealer arrived and quickly agreed to pay the asking price after examining the cows. However, when it came time for payment, he claimed to have forgotten his money-belt and proposed leaving one cow as security while taking the other two.
Trina saw the logic in this arrangement and agreed to the proposal. She was pleased with herself, thinking she had made a clever bargain by keeping the smallest cow that ate the least. When Hans returned on the third day and learned what had happened, he was furious and prepared to beat her as promised.
The search for greater fools
However, Hans suddenly had an idea and lowered his stick. He declared that Trina was the stupidest person on earth, but he would give her a chance. He would go out to the highways for three days to search for someone even more foolish than her. If he found such a person, she would escape punishment; if not, she would receive her well-deserved beating. Hans went out and sat on a stone by the great highways, waiting to see what would happen.
That woman has a perfect talent for folly, if she really brings the money, my wife may think herself fortunate, for she will get no beating
The deception of the gullible woman
Soon Hans spotted a peasant wagon approaching with a woman standing upright in the middle instead of sitting comfortably or walking beside the oxen. Recognizing a potential fool, Hans ran back and forth in front of the wagon like a madman. When the woman asked what he wanted, Hans claimed he had fallen from heaven and needed her to drive him back up. The woman became excited, asking if he had seen her husband who had been in heaven for three years.
Hans spun an elaborate tale about her husband's difficult life in heaven, describing how he kept sheep that constantly ran away into the mountains, leaving him exhausted and with torn clothes. The woman was deeply moved by this story and immediately offered to fetch her husband's Sunday coat from home. When Hans explained that clothes weren't allowed in heaven, she decided to send money instead from the sale of her wheat.
Who would have thought it? I will fetch his Sunday coat... I sold my fine wheat yesterday and got a good lot of money for it, I will send that to him
The woman hurried home and returned with a purse full of money, which she placed in Hans's pocket with her own hands. She thanked him repeatedly for his kindness. When she arrived home, she told her son about the wonderful opportunity to help his father in heaven.
The final trick with the horse
The son was amazed by his mother's story and decided to find the man from heaven to learn more about the afterlife. He saddled his horse and rode out, finding Hans sitting under a willow tree counting the money. When the young man asked about the heavenly visitor, Hans pointed up a hill, claiming the man had gone that way and could still be caught with fast riding.
The exhausted youth, tired from work and the ride, asked Hans to take his horse and persuade the heavenly man to return. Hans gladly mounted the horse and rode away, never to return. The son waited until nightfall, then went home and told his mother he had sent the horse to his father. She praised his thoughtfulness, saying his young legs could manage walking better than his father's old ones. Hans returned home triumphant, having found two people more foolish than his wife, thus sparing Trina from her beating.