Chapter XCV: Here It Is Told of a Countryman Who Went to the Town

A peasant from the country came to Florence to buy a doublet. He asked at a shop where the proprietor was. He was not there. But a youth in the shop said: I am the master; what is it you want? I want a doublet. The youth found him one. Try it on, he said. They argued over the price. The countryman had only a quarter of the money. The apprentice, pretending to help him with the doublet, sewed the man’s shirt to it and then said: take it off. And the other removed it, remaining naked.

The other apprentices were ready with sticks and they chased and beat the man all through the city.