A man, reading a book by candlelight, came across a sentence which stated that men with long beards were fools.
This distressed the man because he had a long beard himself.
He had always thought the beard made him look wise and distinguished.
He read the sentence again.
“Men with long beards are fools.”
He looked at his beard.
Then he looked at the book.
“This book must be wrong,” he said.
But the thought bothered him.
The next morning, he visited his barber.
“Cut my beard short,” he ordered.
The barber was surprised.
“You’ve had that beard for twenty years!”
“I’ve just discovered that it makes me look foolish.”
The barber smiled.
“Who told you that?”
“A book.”
The barber laughed.
“And you believe everything you read?”
The man thought for a moment.
“No.”
Then he pointed at his beard.
“But I don’t want to take any chances.”
The barber began cutting.
When he finished, the man looked in the mirror.
He was shocked.
“My goodness!” he exclaimed.
“What?” asked the barber.
“I look ten years younger!”
The barber smiled.
“And perhaps ten years wiser.”
The man proudly walked out of the shop.
A friend saw him and asked, “What happened to your beard?”
The man explained everything.
His friend laughed.
“So you believed the book?”
The man shook his head.
“No. I believed the barber.”
His friend smiled.
“Then you’re still foolish.”
The man touched his short beard and sighed.
“Maybe I should have kept the long one.”
