Don Quixote liked to read. He liked to read a lot. He liked to read so much that he pretty much stopped doing everything else. This is not a good idea unless you are very rich, and he was not. He lived on a farm that had once been fairly prosperous and large, but in addition to ignoring his daily chores, he had begun to sell off pieces of his property in order to buy more books. But the real problem seemed to be his choice of books. He read every book about knights and knight-errantry he could get his paws on. So these books about knights were very popular, but Don Quixote took the craze one step further and decided that he should become a knight himself and devote his life to the knight’s code of chivalry. And that’s just what he did. for Don Quixote, this was overcome by a very active and stubborn imagination. His skinny and old plow-horse became a great knight’s stallion as soon as he changed the horse’s name to Rozinante. Fortunately He renamed a poor local farm girl and she became the great Lady Dulcinea del Toboso who he performed his great deeds for and remained endlessly devoted to even though he apparently had never spoken to her and she was entirely unaware of his existence. And then there were the windmills. Any great knight with Don Quixote’s imagination could easily see that these were really giants. Equipped with his imagination, an ancient suit of armor, a rusty old lance and shield, and a helmet he partly made out of cardboard, Don Quixote set out.
Poor country inns became castles. Flocks of sheep became armies. Merchants became knights and wizards. Barber’s basins became famous golden helmets. And just about every lady became a damsel in distress who needed to be rescued. Not surprisingly, his adventures usually turned out badly. What is surprising is how many people end up playing along with Don Quixote and his fantasies. He convinces a neighbor named Sancho Panza to become his squire and join his crazy adventures by making the unlikely promise of giving Sancho an island. Sancho goes through an incredible amount of trouble but remains faithful to the end. Don Quixote’s friends, a local barber and a priest, end up creating a story about a princess in a faraway land who needs Don Quixote’s help in order to lure him back home. They eventually tie him up and put him in a cage, convincing him that he has actually been enchanted by wizards in an effort to prevent him from resisting. Don Quixote is brought back home and returned to the care of his niece and housekeeper. His books have been removed and destroyed, and even the closet where his books were kept has been walled over. What happens next is the best part. While Don Quixote recovers, Sancho informs him that there has been a book written about them and their many misadventures. Suddenly everyone knows who they are and Don Quixote has, in fact, somehow managed to become a famous knight.
Once upon a time in a place called Seri, there were two salesmen of pots and pans and hand-made trinkets. They agreed to divide the town between them. They also said that after one had gone through his area, it was all right for the other to try and sell where the first had already been.
One day, while one of them was coming down a street, a poor little girl saw him and asked her grandmother to buy her a bracelet. The old grandmother replied, "How can we poor people buy bracelets?" The little girl said, "Since we don't have any money, we can give our black sooty old plate." The old woman agreed to give it a try, so she invited the dealer inside.
The salesman saw that these people were very poor and innocent, so he didn't want to waste his time with them. Even though the old woman pleaded with him, he said he had no bracelet that she could afford to buy. Then she asked, "We have an old plate that is useless to us, can we trade it for a bracelet?" The man took it and, while examining it, happened to scratch the bottom of it. To his surprise, he saw that underneath the black soot, it was a golden plate! But he didn't let on that he had noticed it. Instead he decided to deceive these poor people so he could get the plate for next to nothing. He said 'This is not worth even one bracelet, there's no value in this, I don't want it!" He left, thinking he would return later when they would accept even less for the plate.
Meanwhile the other salesman, after finishing in his part of town, followed after the first as they had agreed. He ended up at the same house. Again the poor little girl begged her grandmother to trade the old plate for a bracelet. The woman saw that this was a nice tender looking merchant and thought, "He's a good man, not like the rough-talking first salesman." So she invited him in and offered to trade the same black sooty old plate for one bracelet. When he examined it, he too saw that it was pure gold under the grime. He said to the old woman, "All my goods and all my money together are not worth as much as this rich golden plate!"
Of course the woman was shocked at this discovery, but now she knew that he was indeed a good and honest fellow. So she said she would be glad to accept whatever he could trade for it. The salesman said, "I'll give you all my pots and pans and trinkets, plus all my money, if you will let me keep just eight coins and my balancing scale, with its cover to put the golden plate in." They made the trade. He went down to the river, where he paid the eight coins to the ferry man to take him across.
By then the greedy salesman had returned, already adding up huge imaginary profits in his head. When he met the little girl and her grandmother again, he said he had changed his mind and was willing to offer a few cents, but not one of his bracelets, for the useless black sooty old plate. The old woman then calmly told him of the trade she had just made with the honest salesman, and said, "Sir, you lied to us."
The greedy salesman was not ashamed of his lies, but he was saddened as he thought, "I've lost the golden plate that must be worth a hundred thousand." So he asked the woman, "Which way did he go?" She told him the direction. He left all his things right there at her door and ran down to the river, thinking, "He robbed me! He robbed me! He won't make a fool out of me!"
From the riverside he saw the honest salesman still crossing over on the ferry boat. He shouted to the ferry man, "Come back!" But the good merchant told him to keep on going to the other side, and that's what he did.
Seeing that he could do nothing, the greedy salesman exploded with rage. He jumped up and down, beating his chest. He became so filled with hatred towards the honest man, who had won the golden plate, that he made himself cough up blood. He had a heart attack and died on the spot!
The moral is: "Honesty is the best policy."
