From the experience of his own youth, knowing well that sons needed an eye and an eye, Argant and Geront, when they left Naples on business, entrusted the care of children to servants: Octave, son of Argant, was left under the supervision of Sylvester, and the offspring of Geront Leander - rogues Scapena. However, in the role of mentors and overseers, the servants were not painstakingly zealous, so the young people were free to use the time of parental absence entirely at their discretion.
Leander immediately made an affair with a pretty gypsy Zorbinetta, with whom he spent all days. Once, Octave accompanied Leander, and on the way to the place where the gypsy lived, friends heard that from one house crying and moaning were heard. For the sake of curiosity, they looked inside and saw a dead old woman, over whom a young girl shed tears. Leander thought that she was not bad at all, while Octave fell in love with her without memory. From that day he only thought that about Hyacinth - that was the name of the girl - and with all his might sought reciprocity from her, but she was modest, and besides, as they said, came from a noble family. So at his disposal was the only way to call his Hyacinth - to marry her. So he did.
After the marriage, only three days passed when Octave learned a terrible news from a relative’s letter: Argant and Geront are not returning tomorrow, and the father has the firm intention to marry Octave to Geront’s daughter, whom no one has seen, since she still lived with his mother in Tarento. Octave did not want to part with his young wife, and Hyacinth begged him not to leave her. Having promised her to settle everything with his father, Octave nevertheless had no idea how to do this. The mere thought of the anger that his father would bring down upon him met him in horror.
But no wonder the servant of Leandra Skapen was known as a rare crook and a rogue. He willingly undertook to help the grief of Octave - for him it was easier than ever. When Argant lashed out at Sylvester for the fact that, due to his oversight, Octave married an unknown friend and without his father’s knowledge, Skapen, having interrupted a conversation, saved the servant from the master’s wrath, and then told Argant the story of how Hyacinth’s relatives found her his poor son and forcibly married. Argant already wanted to run to the notary to dissolve the marriage, but Skapen stopped him: first, for the sake of saving his father and honor, Octave should not admit that he married not of his own free will; secondly, he will not recognize this, since he is completely happy in marriage.
Argant was beside himself. He regretted that Octave was his only offspring - if he did not have a baby daughter many years ago, she could inherit all her paternal fortune. But Octave, who was not yet devoid of inheritance, was definitely short of money; he was pursued by creditors. Skapen promised to help him in this difficulty, and to shake out a couple of hundred pistols from Argant.
Geront, when he learned about Octave's marriage, was offended by Argant for not keeping words to marry his son to his daughter. He began to reproach Argant with Octave’s poor upbringing, while Argant took a polemic and said that Leander could do something worse than what Octave did; however, he referred to Skapen. It is clear that the meeting of Geront with his son after that turned out to be unpleasant for Leander.
Leander, although his father did not blame him for anything concrete, wished to settle accounts with the traitor Skapen. Under the fear of brutal beatings, Skapen did not admit what: he drank a keg of master's wine with a friend, then dumped it on a maid, and pocketed the watch sent by Leander as a present to Zerbinette, and beat the owner one night, pretending to be a werewolf, so that it would be inconvenient was to drive servants at night on trifling instructions. But the scammers were never listed behind him.
From the continuation of the reprisal, Skapen was saved by a man who informed Leander that the gypsies were leaving the city and taking Zerbinetta with them - if Leander did not make five hundred ecu ransoms for her in two hours, he would never see her again. The young man didn’t have that kind of money, and he turned to Skapen for help all the same. For decency, the servant unlocked, but then agreed to help, especially since it was even easier to extract money from the nearby Geront than from Argant, who was not inferior to him in being mean.
For Argant, Skapen prepared a whole performance. He told him that he had visited his brother Hyacinth - a notorious thug and a dashing grunt - and convinced him for a certain amount to agree to divorce. Argant perked up, but when Skapen said that he needed only two hundred pistols, he said that it would be better to seek a divorce through the court. Then Skapen set about describing the delights of judicial red tape, which, incidentally, also costs a heap of money; Argant stood his ground.
But then Sylvester dressed as a thug appeared and scattering terrible curses, demanded that Skapen show him a scoundrel and a scoundrel Argant, who wants to sue him in order to obtain a divorce from Octave and his sister. He rushed with a sword at Argant, but Skapen convinced the imaginary thug that this was not Argant, but his worst enemy. Sylvester nevertheless continued to furiously wave his sword, demonstrating how he would deal with his father Octave. Argant, looking at him, finally decided that it would be cheaper to part with two hundred pistols.
In order to lure the money from Geront, Skapen came up with the following story: in the harbor, a Turkish merchant lured Leander to his galley - supposedly wanting to show him various wonders - and then set sail and demanded a ransom of five hundred ecu for the young man; otherwise, he intended to sell Leander into slavery to the Algerians. Believe it, Geront immediately believed it, but it hurt him to feel sorry for the money. At first he said that he would report to the police - and this is for a Turk at sea! - Then he suggested to Skapen to take hostages instead of Leander, but in the end he nevertheless parted with his wallet.
Octave and Leander were at the top of happiness, having received parental money from Skapen, for which one could buy a lover from the gypsies, and the other - humanly live with his young wife. Skapen was also going to settle accounts with Geront, who had slandered him before Leander.
Leander and Octave decided that until everything was settled, it would be better for Zerbinette and Hyacinth to be together under the supervision of faithful servants. The girls immediately became friends, but they didn’t agree on whose situation was more difficult: Hyacinths, from whom they wanted to take away their beloved husband, or Zorbinetta, who, unlike her friend, could not hope to ever find out who her parents were. So that the girls would not be too discouraged, Skapen entertained them with a story about how he had cheated away the money from the fathers of Octave and Leander. Skapen's amusement was told to his friends, but he himself almost later came out sideways.
Meanwhile, Skapen took the time to avenge Geront for slander. He scared Geront to death with a story about his brother Hyacinth, who vowed to crack down on him because he allegedly intended to get Octave divorced through court and then marry the young man to his daughter; soldiers from the company of this brother, according to Skapen, have already blocked all approaches to Geront's house. After making sure that the story had the expected impact on Geront, Skapen offered his help - he would put the owner in a bag and carry him past the ambush. Geront vividly agreed.
As soon as he got into the bag, Skapen, speaking in two voices, played a dialogue with a Gascon soldier burning with hatred for Geront; the servant defended the master, for which he was supposedly brutally beaten - in fact, he only wailed, but he himself threshed a sack with a stick. When the imaginary danger passed and the beaten Geront leaned out, Skapen began to complain that most of the blows still fell on his poor back.
Skapen threw the same number when another soldier approached them with Geront, but on the third - Skapen just began to play the appearance of a whole detachment - Geront leaned a little out of the bag and understood. Skapen was saved by force, and then, as luck would have it, Zerbinetta walked along the street, who could not calm down in any way - such a funny story Skapen told her. In her face, she did not know Geront and willingly shared with him the story of how a well-made servant puffed up two greedy old people.
Argant and Geront complained to each other about Skapen, when suddenly a woman called out to Geront - it turned out to be the old nurse of his daughter. She told Geront that his second wife — whose existence he was hiding — had long moved with her daughter from Tarento to Naples and died here. Left without any means and not knowing how to find Geront, the nurse gave Hyacinth to marry the young man Octave, for which she now apologized.
Immediately after Hyacinth, Zorbinetta also found her father: the gypsies, whom Leander referred the ransom for her, said that they had abducted her by a four-year-old from her noble parents; they also gave the young man a bracelet with which relatives could identify Zorbinetta. Just looking at this bracelet was enough for Argant to be sure that Zorbinetta was his daughter. Everyone was incredibly happy, and only the dodger-Skapen expected a brutal reprisal.
But then a friend of Skapen came running with the news of an accident: poor Skapen walked past the construction site and a hammer fell on his head, breaking through his skull. When the bandaged Skapen was brought in, he earnestly writhed out a dying man and prayed to Argant and Geront to forgive all the evil caused to him before his death. He, of course, was forgiven. However, hardly everyone was called to the table, Skapen changed his mind about dying and joined the festive meal.
