A Bit of Diplomacy
A rich Jew asked a poor Jew to dinner. Fish was served, and the rich man gave the poor man the smallest. He picked at them with his fork, without eating any, and mumbled the while in his beard. The rich man watched him for some time, and then asked:
“Why don’t you eat? What are you doing with the fishes?”
“Excuse me,” said the other, “I was talking to the fish.”
“Well, what about?”
“I had a brother who was drowned some years ago, and we could not find him in the water; so I was asking the fishes if they could tell me something about him.”
“What do they say?”
“That they were still too small to know anything about it; that I should ask the big ones.”
Ashamed, the rich man filled his plate with large fish.