There lived one rich man who was so stingy that, due to his great stinginess, he never bought or ate meat. And when he became impatient and wanted to taste meat, he bought a lamb’s head cheaply and ate it greedily. This is how his life went.
One of my acquaintances once asked the miser:
- Why don’t you eat anything meat except lamb’s head?
“Because I like it that way,” answered the rich man.
“Really, I don’t understand you,” the friend objected. - Apparently, there is some special meaning in this passion of yours. Open it to me, tell the truth.
“I didn’t tell anyone about this,” the rich man admitted, “but if you swear that you won’t tell people the secret, then I won’t hide the truth from you.”
- Why should I tell your secrets to someone? - says the friend.
- The fact is that a ram's head is a magnificent thing. Firstly, its price is low. Secondly, when some other meat is boiled, the cook or servant can secretly eat a piece. But it is impossible to steal anything from a ram’s head; there is no delicacy who could unnoticed cut off at least a small fraction from a ram’s head. In a word, a lamb's head is cheap, but the benefits from it are great. That’s why I always eat it and don’t buy meat from other people.
“I swear, in my life I have never seen a person as stingy as you!” - the interlocutor exclaimed.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru