Sunday, May 21, 2006

Story Of The Day

Every night a man who had worked at a factory for twenty years would push a wheelbarrow full of straw to the guard at the gate. The guard would look through the straw, and find nothing and pass the man through.

On the day of his retirement the man came to the guard as usual but without the wheelbarrow. Having become friends over the years, the guard asked him, "Charlie, I've seen you walk out of here every night for twenty years. I know you've been stealing something. Now that you're retired, tell me what it is and how you've been doing it."

Charlie simply smiled and replied, "Wheelbarrows."

This is another one of these stories tht goes around. Any story can be used for any point. This is well suited for the point of missing the point, being misdirected by what's in front of our nose at the same time that we miss what's right under our nose.

Snopes (which you can access by clicking on the title) provides everything you ever wanted to know about the various versions of this tale.

4 Comments:

Blogger the sabra said...

o i just love this story. its simplicity is just grand.

May 23, 2006 at 3:43 AM  
Blogger rabbi neil fleischmann said...

Thank You Abby.

Thank You (The)Sabra.

Your comments, in a few words, let me know that you "get it" and are quite appreciated.

May 23, 2006 at 3:47 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Moreh Derech recommended this post. Great story. I want to use it with my eighth grade boys.

June 4, 2006 at 10:48 PM  
Blogger rabbi neil fleischmann said...

I'm glad to have exposed you to it and that you plan to share it with your students. There's a lot of truth in it.

June 4, 2006 at 11:20 PM  

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