Once upon a time there was Grandonia, a very sensible woman who had a son named Vardiello, who was mocked by the entire town. But she loved him very much and everything he did seemed to her extraordinary.
Grandonia had a hen that was laying eggs: she hoped to sell the chicks as soon as possible to make a good profit. One day, having to leave home briefly, she told her son to keep an eye on the hen and if he got away from the brooding, to immediately return it to its place, otherwise the eggs would have cooled and there would be no chicks. She also told him to stay away from the jar placed in the cupboard, containing poison.
Left alone, Vardiello began to stroll around and suddenly realized that the hen had moved away from the brooding. To get her back to her place, he threw a rolling pin at her... and killed her!
When he realized, so as not to let the eggs cool, he lowered his trousers and sat down on the brood, but since his rear end was heavy, he ended up crushing them all.
He didn’t know what to do. Despair made him hungry. So he decided to roast the hen and eat it. While he was still cooking it, he went down to the cellar to get the wine. But some cats stole the spit with the hen.
She also told him to stay away from the jar placed in the cupboard, containing poison.
Left alone, Vardiello began to stroll around and suddenly realized that the hen had moved away from the brooding. To get her back to her place, he threw a rolling pin at her... and killed her!
When he realized, so as not to let the eggs cool, he lowered his trousers and sat down on the brood, but since his rear end was heavy, he ended up crushing them all.
He didn’t know what to do. Despair made him hungry. So he decided to roast the hen and eat it. While he was still cooking it, he went down to the cellar to get the wine. But some cats stole the spit with the hen.
Vardiello started running after the cats and knocked over the cask with the wine.
Taking into account the combined disasters, he became convinced that he would lose his mother's affection and thought it was no longer worth living. So he swallowed up all the contents of the jar his mother had told him was full of poison.
When his mother came back, she started calling her son in vain until Vardiello told her everything that had happened in her absence. Also of the poison.
The mother felt relieved but it took a very long time to convince him that what he had swallowed was not poison, but walnut jam! Calm returned to the family.
Some time later his mother gave Vardiello a nice piece of fabric and told him to go sell it in Naples: "I recommend, however, not to tell people who talk too much because talkers are often cheaters". Vardiello reassured her and left.
Dead tired, he entered the courtyard of an abandoned house, sat on a low wall and began to speak with a statue, thinking it was a person of few words. He tried to sell it the fabric! He told the statue that he would leave the fabric there to have it analyzed and that he would come back the next day to get the money. And so he did. Naturally, the fabric was stolen.
The next day Vardiello returned to the courtyard and asked the statue for the money but it remained silent. Undaunted, he grabbed a stone and threw it at the statue, breaking it into pieces but discovering inside it a pot full of gold coins!
Vardiello grabbed it and ran home to show it to his mother. Grandonia immediately put the pot safely away and knowing that her son would tell everyone, she made him stand outside the door to wait for the ricotta seller. He did so and his mother went quickly upstairs and, from the window, threw raisins and dried figs at him but Vardiello, surprisingly, ate them all and then went to sleep in his room.
A few days later, two boys from the royal court found a gold coin on the ground and began to argue. Vardiello scolded them saying that he had a whole pot full of coins!
The news reached the court and the judge wanted to interrogate him to find the truth. Vardiello told everything he thought had happened but the judge, hearing his outlandish answers, thought he was crazy and locked him in the asylum.
So the stupidity of her son made Grandonia rich and her cleverness was a remedy to his recklessness. Thus saying is true: a ship governed by a good helmsman will never be shipwrecked.
Taken from Giambattista Basile, Lo cunto de li cunti, ovvero Il racconto dei racconti. First day. Edited by Domenico Basile and Grazia Zanotti Cavazzoni. Naples, L'Isola dei Ragazzi, 2015.
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