And up he roos, and softely he wente
Unto the cradel, and in his hand it hente,
And baar it softe unto his beddes feet.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Reeve’s Tale. John moves the cradle beside the miller’s wife’s bed to the foot of his own bed. This is to trick her when she gets up to relieve herself, so that she mistakingly returns into John’s bed instead of her own.