The Educated Man and the Peasant

By Troy Morash

Once upon a time, there was a young man from Bucharest who had just finished university. He was proud of his knowledge and smarts and so decided to leave the big city and make his way teaching peasants in the countryside.

Immediately he was met with difficulties. He found that people didn't take to kindly to being considered more stupid than he, for he was only twenty two and most of the people that he met were much older. If he was to teach them, he would have to prove that he was smarter. Feeling confident of his powers he made a wager with a peasant. If the peasant couldn't answer the educated man's question then the peasant would have to hand over three Lei. The educated man chuckled to himself, 'This is going to be easy money.' The entire village gathered to witness the quiz. The educated man asked the first question, 'What is the capital of England?'

The peasant answered, 'I don't know. I will give you three Lei.'

'London.' The people gasped; they were impressed. The educated man pocketed the money and asked a second question, 'What moves very fast but doesn't look like it is moving at all?'

The peasant answered, 'I don't know. I will give you three Lei.'

'The earth.' The educated man pocketed the money and asked the third question, 'What goes up in the day and down at night?

The peasant answered, 'I don't know. I will give you three Lei.' The educated man had taken from the peasant a total of nine Lei. Now the peasant was poor and his wife started to cry. However, at his turn, the peasant also wished to ask the educated man a question but if he could not answer it he would have to hand over five thousand Lei to the peasant. The educated man quickly agreed and thought to himself, 'This surely is a fool!'

'What goes in the morning with two legs, at noon with four legs and in the evening with six legs?' There was a long silence and everyone was staring at the educated man. He searched his brain for a long time but to no avail. He did not know the answer and had no choice but to hand over five thousand Lei, which was everything he had. Afterwards the educated man was curious and so asked, 'So what goes in the morning on two legs, at noon with four and in the evening with six?'

The peasant answered, 'I don't know. I will give you three Lei.'