Another Example of Exemplum

"In "The Two City Dwellers and the Country Man," told by the father, the three traveling companions of the tale's title are on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Near their destination, their provisions are nearly depleted, and the two city dwellers attempt to cheat the country man by telling him that whoever of them dreams the most extraordinary dream shall get the last of their bread.

As the city dwellers sleep, the country man, alert to their intended deception, eats the half-baked bread before retiring.

The city dwellers relate their made-up dreams. One says he was taken to heaven and led before God by angels. The other says that angels escorted him to hell.

The country man says he dreamed the same things that his companions dreamed and, believing them to be forever lost, one to heaven and the other to hell, ate the bread.

The son tells his father the moral of the story: "As it says in the proverb, ‘He who wanted all, lost all.’" He says that the two city dwellers got their just comeuppance. The story says that he wishes they’d been whipped, as the antagonist in another story he has heard, was beaten for his chicanery. His comment is a transition to the next tale, causing the father to ask his son to tell him this story. Thus, the roles of the father and his son are reversed, as the father, who was the storyteller, becomes the listener, and the son, who was his father's audience, becomes the narrator."

"The Norton Anthology of Western Literature, as stated in Wikipedia"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exemplum#.22The_Two_City_Dwellers_and_the_Country_Man.22