They did so, and he went to one side of the bridge, and unloosed the mouth of the sack, and shook out the meal into the river. Then said he—
“How much meal is there in the sack, neighbours?”
“Marry,” answered they, “none.”
“Now, by my faith,” replied this wise man, “even so much wit is there in your two heads, to strive concerning that thing which you have not.”
Now, which was the wisest of all these three persons I leave you to judge.
Tale Second.
On a time the men of Gotham fain would have pinned in the cuckoo, whereby she should sing all the year; and in the midst of the town they had a hedge made round in compass, and they got the cuckoo, and put her into it, and said—
“Sing here, and you shall lack neither meat nor drink all the year.”
The cuckoo, when she perceived herself encompassed within the hedge, flew away.