An antiques collector likes travelling back roads looking for old stuff, then rips off the rube owners, paying them far less than the actual value of the antique. In this case he finds an old and valuable piece of furniture and spins a tale about needing firewood but as he’s a preacher he coesn’t have much money and the rubes give him the item for free. He goes back to fetch his car to haul the furniture thinking about how much money he’s going to make off the deal, only to return to the house to find the rubes had busted the furniture up into pieces for him.
Sounds kinda like Saki but it wasn’t him. Any help?
I am sure that |Roald Dahl srotoe a story along those lines.
SADLY, no cite, AND, I’m afraid, I hve a feeling I have read it by another quthor anyway - you know - it being told as a joke, more than a supposed “Tale of the Unexpected”, sort of thing.
Ah - just remembered. I think it ALSO featured in a not-very-good Britcom called “Only Fools and HOrses”, but no way do I believe that was the origin of it.
