Not so stupid
Many little towns have their village idiot and Frank, who lived in such a town, wanted to show up his to a visitor.
“Watch this,” he said. “Hey, Billie.”
Billie shambled over to them, a foolish grin on his face. “Hello, Mr Frank,” he said.
“I’ve got something for you, Billie,” said Frank and held out his hand, in the palm of which were two coins -- a shilling and a penny (pre-decimalization). “You can have one of these, Billie -- which one do you want?”
Billie replied, “I’ll take the big one, Mr Frank.”
Frank put the shilling back in his pocket, grinned at his visitor and whispered, “Isn’t he stupid?”
But the visitor’s sympathies were with Billie and, making his excuses to Frank, he hastened after him.
“Listen, Billie,” he said earnestly, “don’t you know that the small coin is worth twelve times as much as the big one?”
“Oh yes, Mister, I know that.”
“Well, why do you let people make a fool of you like that?”
The foolish grin vanished from Billie’s expression. “Because,” he said, “the moment I take the shilling, Mister, they’ll stop playing the game.”
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