One day, a peasant prepared to leave home for three days. Before departing, he told his wife, Trina, that if a cattle-dealer came to buy their three cows, she must sell them for no less than two hundred thalers. He warned her sternly that if she did anything foolish, he would beat her with his hazel stick upon his return.
The next morning, the cattle-dealer arrived. Agreeing to the price, he took the cows but claimed he had forgotten his money-belt. As security, he proposed taking two cows and leaving one. Trina, thinking herself clever for keeping the smallest cow that ate the least, agreed.
When the peasant returned, Trina proudly reported the sale but admitted she had not received the money, only the "security" of one cow. Enraged, the peasant raised his stick to beat her but then had an idea. He declared her the stupidest person on earth but said he would spare her if he could find someone even more foolish within three days.
He went to the highway and waited. Soon, he saw a woman standing in a wagon instead of sitting on the straw to make it "lighter" for the oxen. Pretending to be a man who had fallen from heaven, he engaged her in conversation. The woman, believing her deceased husband was in heaven tending sheep in tattered clothes, asked the peasant to deliver money to him. She hurried home, fetched a purse of money, and gave it to him.
Later, the woman's son, hearing the story, rode out to find the "man from heaven." He met the peasant, who was counting the money. The youth, tired from his ride, asked the peasant to take his horse and fetch the heavenly visitor. The peasant agreed, mounted the horse, and rode away, never to return. The youth assumed the peasant had given the horse to his father in heaven.
Finally, the peasant returned home with the horse and money. He told Trina he had found two people even more foolish than she was, so she escaped her beating. He reflected that trading two lean cows for a sleek horse and a purse of money was excellent business, all thanks to others' stupidity.