“Why, neighbor, have you lost your mind?—pulling down your ceiling in winter. You and your wife will freeze to death!”
But the man said:—
“No, brother; you see I am pulling down my ceiling so as to have something to heat my oven with. We have such a curious one; the more I heat it up, the colder we are!”
The neighbor laughed, and said:—
“Well, then, after you have burnt up your ceiling, then you will be tearing down your house. You won’t have anywhere to live; only the oven will be left, and even that will be cold!”
“Well, that is my misfortune,” said the man. “All my neighbors have firewood enough for all winter; but I have already burnt up my fences and the ceiling of my house, and have nothing left.”
The neighbor replied:—
“All you need is to have your oven rebuilt.”
But the man said:—
“I know well that you are jealous of my house and my oven because they are larger than yours, and so you advise me to rebuild it.”
And he turned a deaf ear to his neighbor’s advice, and burnt up his ceiling, and burnt up his whole house, and had to go and live with strangers.