A beggar always sat next to a bakery shop and asked for alms. The shop owner noticed him every day but kept quiet. One day, he noticed the beggar behaving strangely. He was closing his eyes and tried to smell the freshly baked cakes. Then he took a bite from his lunch box. “He is imagining that he is eating my cakes by smelling them! This is too much!” said the shop owner under his breath. He walked over to the beggar and said, “You need to pay for smelling my cakes.” The beggar did not have the money but he was clever. So, he took out a shilling, the only one he had got all day, and said to the shopkeeper, “Will you smell this, please?” When the shopkeeper did smell the shilling, the beggar said, “By letting you smell my coin, I have paid you for smelling your cakes!” Then he walked away, leaving the shopkeeper shocked!
The Clever Beggar and the Shopkeeper
