Cow-orker tells me of an e-mail from his cuz in Sask. He moved into his new house. The former occupants left their fridge. Nice fridge, and all but he didn’t need two of’em, so he puts it on the curb. Affixes sign, “Free Fridge” It sits there for days. Insight strikes and he replaces the sign, “Fridge for sale, $50” It disappeared the very next day.
There’s got to be a fable-worthy moral in there somewhere.
Now that’s wonderful . . . .
The mindset people have, is thus:
“Why would they give away a perfectly good <insert item here>, when they could sell it and make money? I guess it must be busted.”
No, no, no… the angle we’re after is thus:
People will not consider you valuable unless you value yourself. Aesop wouldn’t go for your interpretation.
Assuming he didn’t get the $50 and that the fridge was appropriated…
How about:
“A thief sees only a price tag, and an honest man takes no charity.”
WTF? Whoever took it mustn’t have been from Sask. - free stuff! I’ve known people who’ve picked stuff out of ditches (presumably fell off vehicle when someone was moving or something). And old Ukrainian babas always collect more crap than they need.
How about, “That which is valued, is valued by all.”?
No offense to the OP (none intended, anyway), but e-mails from co-workers’ cousins in Saskatchewan have certain reliability issues. This one has UL written all over it. I put stuff out on my curb all the time (granted, not with a “free” sign on it–that part is understood) and if it has any conceivable value to anybody, even as scrap, it’s gone within 20 minutes. And I don’t believe Illinoisans are any cheaper than, um, Saskatchewites, er . . . Saskatooners . . . you know, people from up there.
This reminds me of a story I heard years ago - I can’t for the life of me remember exactly where.
A couple’s dog had puppies. They put an ad in the paper to sell them that said, “Five cute puppies and one ugly runt for sale.”
They sold the ‘ugly runt’ six times.
Yeah, cute story, but it also smacks of glurgy UL.
Yeah, I didn’t make that clear: he got no cash. Love the moral!
You may be correct (although I trust my cow-worker) but it’s more credible than, say, the bet between the Sun and the Wind to blow off that dude’s coat. I think Aesop’s BS detector is set quite low.
Saskabushers. The word you’re looking for is Saskabushers.
I threw out a washing machine once. My mailman suggested that I put a sign on it that said “works.”
I said, “But it doesn’t work.”
“They’re not gonna know that til they get it home.”
Oh, you misunderstand. I meant, “You get the works - all of the non-functioning parts. I can see how you were confused though. Can I offer you your money back?”
You misspelled ““Plato.”.”