Page "The Reeve's Tale" Paragraph 7

Although some scholars are reluctant to say that Chaucer ever read the Decameron, Chaucer's story is very close to one told in Day IX, Tale 6 of that set of Italian tales, in which two clerks lodge with a innkeeper for the night.

One of the clerks, who has long been an admirer of the innkeeper's daughter, slips into her bed while she is asleep and, after her fears are overcome, they both enjoy sex together.

Later, a cat wakes up the innkeeper's wife and she gets up to investigate.

The second clerk gets up to go to the bathroom and moves the cradle in front of the innkeeper's bed because it is in the way.

After he returns to his bed, the innkeeper's wife returns and feels her way to the bed with the cradle in front of it, which is actually the clerk's bed.

She slips in beside him and both are surprised and have sex together.

The wife later explains to the suspecting innkeeper that she was in her daughter's bed all night.

The story has several differences from Chaucer's in that the clerks do not plot against the innkeeper but are only there to get to his daughter.

No mill is even mentioned in the story.