A favorite story I heard long ago is about how some young boys tried to fool a wise old woman who lived in their village.  The boys, who had seen the woman hobble about town just couldn’t understand why the adults always seem to treat her with respect.  Putting their heads together, they schemed to find a way to show how pathetic she really was.  Routinely they tried to come up with questions they thought she’d never be able to answer—but she always had something wise and relevant to say.  Still, they never stopped trying to trip her up.

One day a particularly mischievous boy in the group came up with the perfect question that would be impossible for the old woman to answer correctly.  He plotted a plan to hold a small live bird behind his back in his cupped hands.  He would then ask the wise woman, “Is the bird in my hands alive or is it dead?”  Naturally, if the woman said the bird was alive, the boy intended to quickly squeeze the life out of it and answer, “No, the bird is dead.”  If the woman said the bird is dead, then the boy would merely present the live bird proving her wrong.  Either way, the boy laughed thinking he couldn’t lose. [Read more…]