Dobrogi fails to recognize Matthew Goose.

“All right, Lord Dobrogi, but I’ll pay you back three times!” shouted Matthew as he staggered to his feet at the whipping post.

Dobrogi flew into a rage.

“What!  You dare to talk back to me?”  He motioned to the guards and shouted, “Take hold of that rogue again and give him thirty more lashes!”

Dobrogi’s henchmen grabbed Matthew again.  They tied him to the whipping post and gave him thirty more strokes.  Then they let him go.  He staggered away in pain but said nothing.  His thoughts, however, stayed with Dobrogi for a long time.

A few years passed.  Yet Matthew was still so angry and ashamed about his whipping that he left his village and went to faraway places. 

One day, however, he returned to his birthplace.  The first news he heard was about his enemy: Lord Dobrogi was having a new mansion built for himself.

At this news, Matthew put on some carpenter’s clothes and took the shortest road to Dobrogi’s town, which was only a short distance away.  Half of the new mansion had already been built, and the timber for the remaining part was neatly stacked to one side.  It was nicely carved and ready for use.  Matthew stepped up to the big stack and measured the timber as if he were a real carpenter.

Dobrogi soon noticed the foreign-looking carpenter loitering on his property.  He came out of his mansion and asked Matthew who he was.

“Sir, I am a carpenter from a faraway land,” Matthew replied, “and if I may say so myself, I have a great reputation for my skill.”

Dobrogi’s thoughts immediately turned to his new mansion.  He wondered whether it was being built properly.