"You will go and sell the horse, and when you are asked, 'How much?'
you will reply, 'A ducat.' I have, however, a very fine cat which I also
wish to dispose of, and you will sell it with the horse for ninety-nine
ducats, so that cat and horse together will bring in the hundred ducats
for which my husband wished to sell the horse alone."

The servant readily fulfilled his mistress's command. While he was
walking the horse about the market-place, and holding the cat in his
arms, a gentleman, who had seen the horse before, and was desirous of
possessing it, asked the servant what price he sought.

"A ducat," replied the man.

"I pray you," said the gentleman, "do not mock me."

"I assure you, sir," said the servant, "that it will cost you only a
ducat. It is true that the cat must be bought at the same time, and for
the cat I must have nine and ninety ducats."

Forthwith, the gentleman, thinking the bargain a reasonable one, paid
him one ducat for the horse, and the remainder as was desired of him,
and took his goods away.

The servant, on his part, went off with the money, with which his
mistress was right well pleased, and she failed not to give the ducat
that the horse had brought to the poor Mendicants, (2) as her husband
had commanded, and the remainder she kept for the needs of herself and
her children. (3)

2 The allusion is not to the ordinary beggars who then, as