A book about a man finding three people more stupid than his fiancée

Question

I read a book a while ago - I remember enjoying the read (I think it was intended to be humorous). I'm pretty sure it was a short story.

I must have read it in the last ten years, and there is a high chance it is therefore a children's book, but I'd still like to find out the name, and would be grateful if someone could do so. My google searches so far have come out with nothing.

Here's what I can remember:

• It was about a young man who is about to marry a woman
• The woman does something very stupid, I think involving a barn/mill and an axe, hammer or saw, and starts crying because she thinks her children will get hurt (I seem to remember her telling others and they start crying too).
• The man tells the woman that if he can find three people more stupid he will marry her, and sets out on a journey.
• The first person more stupid hangs his trousers on a door handle and tries to jump into them.
• I can't remember what the second person does
• The third group of people think the moon has fallen into their lake and are trying to fish its reflection out with a net.
• The man returns and marries the woman.

I can't remember anything about the title or author, but I hope this should be enough information for someone to find it. Thanks to anyone who tries!

Answer 1

The Three Sillies is your story. There are many kids book editions so matching the particular one you saw might be hard.

Quoting from the link,

So that was another big silly.

Then the gentleman went on his travels again; and he came to a village, and outside the village there was a pond, and round the pond was a crowd of people. And they had got rakes, and brooms, and pitchforks, reaching into the pond; and the gentleman asked what was the matter. "Why," they say, "matter enough! Moon's tumbled into the pond, and we can't rake her out anyhow!" So the gentle man burst out a-laughing, and told them to look up into the sky, and that it was only the shadow in the water. But they wouldn't listen to him, and abused him shamefully, and he got away as quick as he could.

So there was a whole lot of sillies bigger than them three sillies at home. So the gentleman turned back home again and married the farmer's daughter, and if they didn't live happy for ever after, that's nothing to do with you or me.