By and by he said: "Eleven hundred and six ducats.

It is a large sum." "Seven," said Seppi, correcting him.
"Oh, seven, was it?
Of course a ducat more or less isn't of consequence, but you said eleven hundred and six before." It would not have been safe for us to say he was mistaken, but we knew he was.

Nikolaus said, "We ask pardon for the mistake, but we meant to say seven." "Oh, it is no matter, lad; it was merely that I noticed the discrepancy.
It is several days, and you cannot be expected to remember precisely.
One is apt to be inexact when there is no particular circumstance to impress the count upon the memory." "But there was one, sir," said Seppi, eagerly.
"What was it, my son ?" asked the astrologer, indifferently.
"First, we all counted the piles of coin, each in turn, and all made it the same--eleven hundred and six.

But I had slipped one out, for fun, when the count began, and now I slipped it back and said, 'I think there is a mistake--there are eleven hundred and seven; let us count again.' We did, and of course I was right.

They were astonished; then I told how it came about." The astrologer asked us if this was so, and we said it was.
"That settles it," he said.