The Decameron

After a two-day break from storytelling and moving to a new villa, Neifile becomes queen for the day and decides that the theme should be “people who by dint of their own efforts have achieved an object they greatly desired or recovered a thing previously lost” (396).

The first storyteller is Filostrato. He reminds his audience that nuns do not lose their sexual desires when they join a convent. After working as a gardener at a convent, Nuto leaves his job and returns to his hometown, Lamporecchio. His stories about the difficult work at the famously chaste convent inspire Masetto, a young man from the same town, to take Nuto's old job where he will be “surrounded by a lot of women” (404). To improve his chances of being hired, he pretends that he cannot speak or hear. After a few days silently helping one of the convent's stewards, Masetto is hired.

One day, Masetto lays in the garden to take a nap and overhears two nuns discussing sex. They have only heard about sex and they admit to each other that they are fascinated. They mention Masetto as the perfect choice of romantic partner, as he would never be able to tell anyone what they have done so there “couldn’t be a better man for the purpose” (407).