Fable Books

“A Gentile met a rabbi and said to him, 'You have taught me many things but there is one thing in particular I want to learn very much but you do not wish to teach to me. I want you to teach me the Talmud.' The rabbi replied, 'You are a non-Jew and you have the brain of a non-Jew. There is no chance that you will succeed in understanding the Talmud.' But the Gentile continued in his attempt to persuade the rabbi to teach him the Talmud. Finally, the rabbi then said to the Gentile, 'I agree to teach you the Talmud on condition that you answer one question.' The Gentile agreed and asked the rabbi, 'What is the question?' The rabbi then said to the Gentile, 'Two men fall down through the chimney. One comes out dirty and the other comes out clean. Who of those goes to wash up?' 'Very simple,' replied the Gentile. 'The one who is dirty goes to wash up but the one who is clean does not go to wash up.' The rabbi then said to the Gentile, 'I told you that you would not succeed in understanding the Talmud. The exact opposite happened. The clean one looks at the dirty and thinks that he is also dirty and goes to wash up. The dirty one, on the other hand, looks at the clean one and thinks that he is also clean and therefore does not go to wash up.' The Gentile said to the rabbi, 'This I did not think of. Ask me, please, another question.' The rabbi then said to the Gentile, 'Two men fall down through the chimney. One comes out dirty and the other comes out clean. Who of these goes to wash up?' The Gentile replied to the rabbi, 'Very simple. The clean one looks at the dirty one and thinks he is also dirty and goes to wash up. The dirty one, on the other hand, looks at the clean one and thinks that he is also clean and therefore does not go to wash up.' The rabbi said to the Gentile, 'You are wrong again. I told you that you would not understand, The clean one looks into the mirror, sees that he is clean, and therefore does not go to wash up. The dirty one looks into the mirror, sees that he is dirty, and goes to wash up.' The Gentile complained to the rabbi, 'But you did not tell me that there was a mirror there.' The rabbi said to the Gentile, 'I said that you were a non-Jew, and that with your brain you would not succeed in understanding the Talmud. According to the Talmud, you have to think of all the possibilities.' 'All right,' groaned the Gentile to the rabbi. 'Let us try once more. Ask me one more question.' For the last time, the rabbi said to the Gentile, 'Two men fall through the chimney. One came out dirty and the other came out clean, Who of these went to wash up?' 'That is very simple!' replied the Gentile. 'If there is no mirror there the clean one will look at the dirty one and will think that he is also dirty and will therefore go to wash up. The dirty one will look at the clean one and will think that he is also clean and will therefore not go to wash up. If there is a mirror there, the clean one will look into the mirror and will see that he is clean and will therefore not go to wash up. The dirty one will look into the mirror and will see that he is dirty and will therefore go to wash up.' The rabbi said to the Gentile, 'I told you that you would not succeed in understanding. You are a non-Jew, you have a non-Jewish brain. Tell me, how is it possible for two men to fall through the a chimney and for one to come out dirty and for the other to come out clean?”
― Alberto Manguel, Maimonides: Faith in Reason