Who is the real fool?

7 days ago (Edited)

I remember once, when I was in high school, we were in geography class and a girl stood up and asked the teacher a question. The question was, why is it colder in the mountains than on the common surface (at sea level), if the mountains are closer to the sun? She had barely finished uttering the words when the entire room erupted in laughter and everyone began to make fun of her and make her see how silly she was for asking such a stupid question. Everyone was mocking her.

Then the teacher stood up, annoyed, and began to silence the entire class, and then he said since you were making fun, which of you knew the answer to that question? And everybody got quiet. Nobody stood up. Nobody answered back. Nobody knew.

Then the teacher began to scold the class and explain that the surface of the sea made the heat bounce off the water and the surface was warmer at sea level, or something like that, this was quite some time ago so I don't remember in detail. Finally, the teacher congratulated the girl for asking that question. A question no one knew the answer to.

And while I know they were all practically children at the time, I think it serves as a good example.

It reminds me of a story: the story of the “pelotudo”. It is an Argentine story, and Argentines use the word “pelotudo” to refer to someone who is an imbecile or a fool.

Somewhere in Argentina, there was a guy who had a reputation for being a fool, everybody made fun of him because of how dumb he was. They would always call him and show him two coins, a big one and a small one. Now, it's funny because the most valuable coin was the small one and the big one was worth almost nothing. (I don't know if in other countries this is also the case, but in my country, before, when coins were used, the lower-value coins were made of a cheaper alloy and that's why they were bigger than the higher-value coins).

Well, every time he was asked this question, the fool would pick the big coin, the one that was worth the least, and everyone would make fun of him and no one would say anything to him. This went on for a while, him always picking the big coin, and people always making fun of him.

Until one day, someone stopped the fool and said “Are you really so dumb, don't you know that the small coin is worth the most?” To which the fool replied, “I know”. The other said “Why don't you grab it then?” To which the fool replied, “Because the day I grab the small one, people will stop giving me money for free”.