The moral of the passage is: There can be wisdom in an act that seems foolish. The fool's seemingly ridiculous demand led to an outcome that ultimately saved his mother, demonstrating that what may appear as foolishness can sometimes have a deeper wisdom or purpose.
Refer to the passage from "The Wise Fool.”
Further discussion seemed useless, and the meeting was just about to break up when the fool walked up and demanded to be heard. "Listen to me,” he said. "The fairies say my mother should die. It is a fair punishment for her crime. But the fairies walked across my land as they came to the village. I demand that they rub out their footprints before they are allowed to take mother away.” It seemed a foolish, meaningless demand, and everyone said, "How simple!” The fairies agreed.
At sundown the fairies were still working on the sandy plot. Two days went by. And a week. And another. Because just as one set of footprints were got rid of, another set appeared. By the end of the second week, in fact, the fairies had covered the entire plot with footprints. At last they gave up and let the woman live.
What is the moral of the passage?
It is unwise to make deals with fairies.
It is impossible to erase all of one’s footprints.
There can be wisdom in an act that seems foolish.
A punishment should be fair and based on the crime.
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