Thoughts: Five cents, more or less

A nickel in hand is worth two in the bush....
A nickel in hand is worth two in the bush….

Some of the parables of the day center on who is wiser among us, and who is the better trickster. Here’s one:

Nickel Or Dime?

There’s a little fellow named Junior who hangs out at Tim’s Grocery Store. The owner Tim doesn’t know what Junior’s problem is, but the boys like to tease him.

They say he is two bricks shy of a load, or two pickles shy of a barrel. To prove it, sometimes they offer Junior his choice between a nickel and a dime. He always takes the nickel — they say because it’s bigger.

One day after Junior grabbed the nickel, Tim got him off to one side and said, “Junior, those boys are making fun of you. They think you don’t know the dime is worth more than the nickel. Are you grabbing the nickel because it’s bigger, or what?” And Junior said, “Well, if I took the dime, they’d quit doing it!”