The Clever Man

The shopkeeper observed a beggar picking something up from the dust in front of his shop. It appeared to be a coin—a rupee.

“You cannot escape with my coin!” he shouted. “I am too clever to let you do so! That coin slipped out of my pocket.”

“I am poor, sir. Let me keep it since luck led me to find it,” pleaded the beggar.

“Did not luck lead me to find you picking it up?” challenged the shopkeeper.

After some argument, they reached a compromise. The beggar surrendered the coin to the shopkeeper in exchange for half its worth in small change.

An hour later, the shopkeeper saw his wife searching for something in the dust. She had lost a coin there at dusk.

“Here it is,” said the shopkeeper. “It was clever of me to recover it from a beggar.”

But soon, he discovered that the coin the beggar had given him was a fake.

The beggar had not only kept the genuine coin for himself but had also tricked the shopkeeper into paying for the counterfeit!