חולין כב

Sarah brought a very stiff parrot into a veterinary center and said to Simon, the vet, “My Minky doesn’t seem to be very well. I hope you can help him.” The vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird’s chest. Shaking his head, he said “I’m sorry, but Minky has passed away.” Sarah, shocked and upset, said “Are you sure?” “Yes, I’m sure,” replied the vet, “Minky really is dead.” “How can you be so sure?” asked Sarah. “You haven’t done any tests on him. He might just be in a deep sleep.” Simon left the room and two minutes later returned with a Labrador who, to Sarah’s amazement, stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the parrot from top to bottom. The dog then looked at the vet with watery eyes and shook his head. Simon patted the dog on his head and took it out the room, returning with a beautiful Siamese cat. The cat jumped up on the table and, like the dog before her, sniffed delicately up and down the bird. She then sat back on her haunches, shook her head, meowed, jumped down and left the room. The vet looked at Sarah and said, “I’m sorry, but as I said before, Minky is most definitely a dead parrot, he is no more.” At that, he walked over to his computer, keyed in some data and printed out an invoice, which he handed to Sarah. Sarah looked at the invoice and cried out, “$250 just to tell me my parrot is dead?” Simon shrugged and said, “I’m sorry, but if you’d taken my word for it at the outset, my fee would only have been $50. But with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, I’ve had to charge you considerably more.”

06/10/2021