Just another day, Count Lucanor told Patronio like this:
Patronio, a man has proposed to trade with me and he has explained how to achieve it. And it is such a profitable business that, may God see to it as foreseen! it will help me so, since every step I take in that business it will render some profit, and in the end richness will be such that the achievement as a whole will turn out huge.
The Count told Patronio what the business consisted of and how to achieve it. And then Patronio answered back:
Milord Count, I always heard we should abide by precise things and never rely on a mere illusion, otherwise it will happen to us as to Lady Rogue.
The Count asked what was wrong with Lady Rogue and Patronio answered:
Milord, once upon a time there was a woman called Lady Rogue who was poorer than richer. One day she went out to the market carrying a jar of honey on her head. On her way, she decided to sell that jar of honey and buy some eggs, which, in due time, should provide hens, and with the money she got from selling the hens, she should buy some sheep, so she went on and on and on… buying with the profits she got until she thought herself richer than any of her neighbours. So she decided that she could get good suitors for her children with all that wealth, thus some fine day she would walk along the streets with her sons-in-law and sisters-in-law, and people would say on seeing her:
How lucky Lady Rogue has been! So poor that she was before, and how rich she has become now!
On thinking of it, Lady Rogue got so happy that she burst out laughing for her good luck. So she laughed and laughed until she ended up by hitting her forehead in such a way that the jar of honey fell to the ground and shattered.
When Lady Rogue saw the broken jar, she started crying without relief, thinking that she had lost everything she had hoped to get from the selling of the honey. And the thing is that as Lady Rogue had trusted so much in a mere illusion, she missed all she longed for.
So, Milord, Patronio concluded, if you really wish true profits, it is better for you to trust in reasonable things and not mere illusions. If you want to risk some business and push your fortune, do it with no valuables.
The Count liked what Patronio told him, so he did as he had been told and turned out well.
And as Don Juan really enjoyed Patronio’s tale, he had it copied in this book and composed these verses which read:
Devote yourself to reasonable things
And despise any loathsome dreams
