The story of "Gimpel the Fool" follows a man named Gimpel. He lives in a town called Frampol and works as a baker. He believes everything he is told, trusting that even outlandish things are always possible. The townsfolk delight in deceiving him in a number of different ways. He gets married to a woman named Elka, whom he believes to be a virgin, even though she already has one child and is pregnant when they marry. When Elka gives birth only four months after their marriage, she convinces Gimpel that the boy was simply born prematurely. Gimpel grows to love the baby and care for Elka.
One day, he walks in on Elka with another man in their bed. Gimpel goes to the town rabbi to seek advice, and the rabbi tells him that he must divorce Elka and stay away from her and her two bastard children. Gimpel starts to miss Elka and the baby, and he retracts his statements to the rabbi, believing Elka when she tells him he was simply hallucinating. Years later, when Elka dies, she confesses to Gimpel the truth: none of the ten children they have together are his. Gimpel’s mind becomes jumbled as he does not know what to believe anymore.
A demon visits him and tells him to take revenge on the town by putting urine in the bread dough and selling it at the bakery. Before the loaves can be sold, however, Gimpel buries them in the ground. He divides his amassed fortune among Elka's children and leaves Frampol. He continues to travel the world as a beggar and storyteller for the rest of his life, determined to believe that everything is possible. At the end of the story, Gimpel says that when he dies, he will do so joyfully, as death and the afterlife cannot deceive anyone.
