Juha searched a long time in vain.  At last, he ran through the village crying, “Oh thieves, if you don’t return my donkey, I’ll do what my father did!”

Frightened by this threat, the thieves returned the donkey.  And one of them asked, “Juha, what did your father do?’

“Oh, quite simple,” replied Juha.  “He bought another donkey!”

It is not just the linguistic implications of a situation with which the trickster-fool tales play, but also more complex conceptual implications.  In “Juha’s Caftan,” for instance, we once again have the hasty conclusion.  This time, however, it is Juha himself who reaches it.

One day Juha’s neighbor heard someone weeping loudly in Juha’s yard, so he came to see what was the matter.  There he found Juha, sitting on the ground weeping and weeping.

“Why, Juha, what is wrong?” asked the neighbor.

"Who wants to buy my donkey for 1 franc and my stick for 500 francs?" - Juha's donkey

“Oho!” exclaimed Juha.  “Do you not see my caftan lying there on the ground by the wall?”  And he wept, “Boo hoo hoo.”

But the neighbor did not understand, and said, “Yes, but I still don’t understand what is wrong.”

“Well!” said Juha between sobs.  “I had hung it there on the clothesline to dry, and the wind came and grabbed it from the line and smashed it against the wall, and it fell there all in a heap!  Boo hoo hoo.”

“But you can wash it again,” replied the neighbor.

“Yes,” sobbed Juha.  “But think! What would have happened to me if I had been wearing it at the time!”

                                                                       *****