‘What does that matter to you?’ replied the fool.
And his mother said to them, ‘Sirs, he is a fool.’
‘No matter,’ said they, ‘fool or blind, we gather together all whom we see, for so the king has commanded us.’
They make the fool come down from the stove; they look; the gold ring is on his finger.
‘So, then, it is thou that art so clever.’
‘It is I.’
He made ready and set out with them. He had nothing upon him, this fool, but a miserable shirt and a cloak all tattered and torn. He came to the king, to whom the servants said, ‘Sire, we bring him to you.’
‘Is this really he?’
‘The very man.’
They show the ring.