Monday, August 30, 2010

How the game works

How you do well in one area is not necessarily how you do well in another area.



A young woman was walking down the street when she encountered a homeless man with a scraggly beard, unkempt hair, and who was wearing shabby clothes and holding out a cup. "Spare some change, please?" he asked. The cup was only about 1/3 full.

Feeling sorry for him, she pulled out her wallet, took out a few bills and handed them to the man. "Here," she said. "Buy yourself some new clothes."

"Thank you," the homeless man replied.

The next day, the girl was walking down the same street when she encountered the same man, but this time he was wearing a fine suit and polished shoes, was clean-shaven and his hair was washed and combed neatly. He was holding out an empty cup.

"How's it going?" the girl asked.

"Not so good," the man said.

"But you look really nice," the girl commented.

"True," the man replied, "But I haven't made a cent all day!"

2 comments:

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

There's some deep wisdom to be learned here...

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes, there actually is. It's a good joke, but a very interesting conundrum.