In a small town barbershop, the barber used to boast to his customers about a free piece of “entertainment”: The world’s dumbest boy.
Every time he saw the boy walking by, he would wave him in with a triumphant smirk. He’d place a crisp $10 bill and a crumpled $5 bill on the counter and announce loudly:
“Hey kid, pick one. It’s yours!”
Without a second thought, the boy would grab the $5 bill and casually stroll out of the shop. The barber would burst into laughter, turning to his puzzled customer:
“See that? I told you. For two years now, he’s picked the five-dollar bill every single day. He just never learns the value of numbers!”
Intrigued, the customer followed the boy to a nearby ice cream parlor after his haircut. Seeing the boy leisurely enjoying a cold cone, the man asked:
“Hey kid, you seem bright to me. Why do you always pick the $5 bill instead of the $10? The ten is worth twice as much!”
The boy licked his ice cream and gave a knowing smile:
“You don’t get it, sir. The day I take that $10 bill, the game is over. And that would be the last day I ever get allowance from that barber.”
As it turned out, over the past two years, the “fool” had accumulated thousands of dollars by playing into the ego of a man who thought he was the smart one.
