Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/266

238 THE STONE IN THE COCK'S HEAD.

robber's wife does not always laugh: he who weaves fraud, works his own ruin: there is no deceit which is not at last discovered, no treachery that does not come to light: walls have ears, and are spies to rogues: the earth gapes and discovers theft; as I will prove to you if you pay attention.

was once in the city of Dark Grotto a certain man named Minecco Aniello, who was so persecuted by fortune, that all his fixtures and moveables consisted only of a short-legged cock, which he had reared upon bread-crumbs. But one morning, being pinched with appetite, (for hunger drives the wolf from the thicket,) he took it into his head to sell the cock; and taking it to the market, he met two thievish magicians, with whom he made a bargain, and sold it for half a crown. So they told him to take it to their house, and they would count