"Pray tell me of your wisdom what is wrong with my mare?"
"How should I know?" asked Pericles.
"I thought you knew everything," returned the carter, in surprise.
"I do," declared Pericles; "but you have not told me what her symptoms are."
"She refuses to eat anything," said the carter.
"Then she is not hungry," returned Pericles; "for neither man nor beast will refuse to eat when hungry."
And the people who heard him whispered together and said,
"Surely this is a wise man, for he has told the carter what is wrong with his mare."
After a few days the fame of Pericles' sayings came to the ears of both Socrates and Sophocles, and they resolved to see him, for each feared he would prove more wise than they were, knowing themselves to be arrant humbugs. So one morning the three wise men met together outside the hut of Pericles, and they sat themselves down upon stools, facing each other, while a great crowd of people gathered around to hear the words of wisdom that dropped from their lips.