A Cautionary Tale

This is an article that was printed in the Sherborn Mercury and then reprinted in The Times on November 7, 1821. It was the title, "Excessive Stupidity", that first caught my attention. Enjoy.

 The Times, Wednesday, Nov 07, 1821; pg. 3; Issue 11397; col E

The article reads:

EXCESSIVE STUPIDITY. - A poor fellow, named Cock, a carpenter, at Denham, Cornwall, was defrauded of 311.6s., by Gipsies, under the following circumstances: - They informed him that he was the person destined to obtain a treasure amounting to upwards of 4,000l. in gold, which lay buried in a certain spot, near his house, which they could not point out then more precisely, but that he could obtain the above sum, and carry it about him for a certain time, he would discover the place. Having made up the sum required, he carried it to the Gipsies, when, after performing some incantations, one of them, in his presence, wrapped up the money in an old handkerchief, which was given to him, with a positive assurance, that if he did not open it for four days, nor reveal the secret, he would at the end expiration of that time infallibly find the treasure. The dupe departed on this assurance; but soon after, beginning to fear that the Gipsy had transferred the money to her own pocket, he opened the handkerchief, and to his great joy found that the sum was really in his possession. All doubt of the truth of the Gipsy's prediction was now removed, and when the 4 days had expired, he went again to his erratic friends, when one of the women told him that she could do nothing for him, unless he would make oath that he had done as he was directed. On this the poor fellow owned that he had looked at the money. The Gipsy desired him to give her the handkerchief containing the money, and to place his back against hers ; this being done, she commenced gesticulating with some violence, and uttering words in a loud voice, which he did not understand. After a short time she delivered the handkerchief to him again, and desired him to provide a pick and a shovel, and that she would come to his house that night, and point out to him the spot where the treasure was hidden. The simpleton departed, provided the implements for digging, and waited up the whole night, during which he watched anxiously, but in vain, for the appearance of the Gipsy. When the morning appeared, he began to fear he had been duped, and again opening the mysterious handkerchief, to his unspeakable surprise and dismay, he found only two-pence. It is almost unnecessary to say, that the Gipsies decamped soon after he left them, and conducted their march so secretly that no trace of them could be discovered by their nearly distracted dupe or his friends. - Sherborn Mercury.