Once, a king expressed his opinion that scholars were the cleverest men in his kingdom. But, the court’s jester disagreed. He said that businessmen were cleverer. He offered to prove his point. He called a scholar to the palace and told him that the king wanted his moustache. He asked him to tell his price. The scholar asked for twenty gold coins and allowed the barber to remove his moustache. Then, the jester called a businessman. He asked for twenty thousand gold coins as his price. But when the barber approached him, the businessman objected by saying, “The moustache belongs to the king! I will not let anyone touch it!” Saying so, he walked out of the palace. The king, who had been listening everything, had to admit that businessmen were cleverer in some matters at least.
The Businessman and the Scholar
