Johann Gustav Gottlieb Büsching

“ He soon found the house of a tanner, and knocked at the door; but before it was opened to him, he saw through the window that the wife hid her lover in a chest. The other asked what he wanted, and on his saying that he wished to sell skins, she answered that the tanner was not at home, and that nothing could be bought without his knowledge. ”

“ At last the young man offered gold, and all to no purpose, till the sum came to a thousand dollars: this being paid, Kibitz suffered his escape.
Our peasant now went back delighted to his village, and told his neighbours how well he had sold his skins; whereupon they all slew their oxen, and hastened to sell them to the tanner. When they came to him, he told them they must be out of their senses, for to Kibitz he had given no more than an old chest: enraged at having been deceived by Kibitz, they determined to kill him when he was working in his garden ”

“ The peasant replied that he would take the old chest in exchange, and he pointed to that in which the lover was. Of course the wife would not yield to this, and Kibitz kept up the dispute till the tanner came home, and wanted to know the matter, when he told his story, and added that he would still receive the chest. The tanner asked his wife why she would not give the chest: ‘You should be glad,’ he said, ‘that the man is contented with it.’ With this Kibitz took the chest, notwithstanding the wife’s opposition, and, having placed it on a truck, went his ways with it. ”