# Wise Folks explained — Household Tales

> Chapter companion for Household Tales by Jacob Grimm.

## What happens

A peasant warns his wife Trina not to sell their three cows for less than two hundred thalers. When a cattle-dealer offers the price but lacks the money, Trina accepts one cow as security and lets the dealer take the other two. The furious peasant sets out to find someone stupider than his wife to spare her a beating. He encounters a woman who believes he fell from heaven and gives him money for her deceased husband, then her son gives him a horse to retrieve the 'heavenly' man. The peasant returns home with the horse and money, sparing his wife.

## Themes in this chapter

### Virtue Rewarded and Vice Punished

The peasant's cleverness in exploiting the foolishness of others is rewarded with a horse and money, while his wife's stupidity is initially threatened with punishment but ultimately forgiven.

### Greed and Its Downfall

The woman's eagerness to send money to her husband in heaven and the son's desire to learn about heaven lead them to lose their wealth and horse to the cunning peasant.

## Character check-ins

### Trina

The peasant's wife who foolishly accepts a cow as security instead of cash for the sale of three cows.

### the peasant

The husband who sets out to find someone stupider than his wife to avoid beating her.

### the cattle-dealer

The buyer who takes two cows without paying, leaving one as security.

### the son

The woman's son who gives his horse to the peasant in hopes of contacting his father in heaven.

### the woman

A widow who believes the peasant came from heaven and gives him money for her husband.

## Key lines

> You are the stupidest goose that ever waddled on God’s earth, but I am sorry for you.

The peasant calls his wife the biggest fool he knows but feels pity for her.

_This line captures the peasant's frustration and reluctant mercy._

> If stupidity always brought in as much as that, I would be quite willing to hold it in honor.

The peasant muses that if foolishness were always so profitable, he would respect it.

_The peasant's concluding thought underscores the tale's ironic moral._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se/chapters/wise-folks
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/household_tales_se/chapters