A golden oldie from VT:
The only cow in a small town in Poland
stopped giving milk. The people did some
research and found that they could buy a
cow from Moscow for 2,000 rubles, or one
from Minsk for 1,000 rubles. Being frugal,
they bought the cow from Minsk. The cow
was wonderful. It produced lots of milk
all the time, and the people were amazed
and very happy. They decided to acquire a
bull to mate with the cow and produce more
cows like it. Then they would never have
to worry about the milk supply again.
They bought a bull and put it in the
pasture with their beloved cow. However,
whenever the bull came close to the cow,
the cow would move away. No matter what
approach the bull tried, the cow would
move away from the bull and he could not
succeed in his quest. The people were
very upset and decided to ask the rabbi,
who was very wise, what to do. They told
the rabbi what was happening.
"Whenever the bull approaches our cow,
she moves away. If he approaches from
the back, she moves forward. When he
approaches her from the front, she backs
off. An approach from the side and she
just walks away to the other side."
The rabbi thought about this for a minute
and asked, "Did you buy this cow from Minsk?"
The people were dumbfounded, since they had
never mentioned where they had gotten the cow.
"You are truly a wise rabbi," they said. "How
did you know we got the cow from Minsk?"
The rabbi answered sadly,
"My wife is from Minsk."
