The Story of the Silver Penknife

There was once a great beauty who was courted by every man in the land. A very rich admirer wanted to buy her a present and asked what she would like. He offered her diamonds, pearls, rubies and emeralds, but all she wanted was a silver penknife. He tried to insist on something more precious, but all she wanted was the penknife. So he bought her a silver penknife.

She was delighted, but when she went to put it away in a drawer, he noticed that it was full of silver penknives. ‘Why’, he asks, ‘when you already have so many penknives, do you want another one?’ She replied, ‘My darling, I may be young and beautiful now, with men falling at my feet, but when I am old and ugly, I know what a Boy Scout will do for a silver penknife.’