There was once in a certain village a weaver who worked hard but could
not earn his living save by overwork. Now it chanced that one of the
richards of the neighbourhood made a marriage feast and invited the
folk thereto: the weaver also was present and found the guests, who
wore rich gear, served with delicate viands and made much of by the
house-master for what he saw of their fine clothes. So he said in his
mind, "If I change this my craft for another craft easier to compass
and better considered and more highly paid, I shall amass great store
of money and I shall buy splendid attire, so I may rise in rank and be
exalted in men's eyes and become even with these." Presently, he
beheld one of the mountebanks, who was present at the feast, climbing
up to the top of a high and towering wall and throwing himself down to
the ground and alighting on his feet. Whereupon the waver said to
himself, "Needs must I do as this one hath done, for surely I shall not
fail of it." So he arose and swarmed upon the wall and casting himself
down, broke his neck against the ground and died forthright. "Now I
tell thee this that thou sayst get thy living by what way thou knowest
and thoroughly understandest, lest peradventure greed enter into thee
and thou lust after what is not of thy condition." Quoth the woman's
husband, "Not every wise man is saved by his wisdom, nor is every fool
lost by his folly. I have seen it happen to a skilful charmer, well
versed in the ways of serpents, to be struck by the fangs of a
snake[FN#172] and killed, and others prevail over serpents who had no
skill in them and no knowledge of their ways." And he went contrary to
his wife and persisted in buying stolen goods below their value till he
fell under suspicion and perished therefor: even as perished the
sparrow in the tale of