Katherine Briggs tells the story of a man who sold his wife at auction, as, supposedly, people did in England at one time. (Thomas Hardy uses it in "The Mayor of Casterbridge".)

In the Briggs story, the man sells his wife, then she pulls a bag of gold out of her pocket and gets the last laugh, since the gold goes with her.

The husband is serenaded by the locals with "Oh ---(Don't remember the name) You are a cure. You sold your wife and you live on cuckold's moor."