An elderly Jewish man was traveling by slow train from Minsk to Pinsk. At one of the frequent stops he felt hungry and bought a large salt herring. At the same stop a young Russian boy entered into his compartment and as the old man slowly munched his herring the young boy began to tease him.
He said ” You Jews have a reputation of being so smart. How come that you are all so clever?” The old man said to him in answer ” Since you are such a polite young man and asked so nicely, I will tell you the secret, if you promise not to tell a soul” The boy swore by all that was holy that he would never reveal such a precious secret, so the old man finally told him ” We Jews are so smart because we eat the head of the salt herring” The boy was really impressed and said ” I would like to get smart right away, I see you still have the head of the herring you have just eaten, would you sell it to me? “
The old man was reluctant, but in the end he gave in and said ” All right, all right, you can have it for a ruble ” Well, a ruble was a high price, but the boy could not wait to get started, so he paid and began to eat the head of the herring. When he was nearly finished he shouted, ” Wait a minute, I saw you by that whole herring for just ten kopecks and I paid you ten times that just for the head! “
The old Jew smiled back at him and said “You see, it is begging to work already”
Credit: jewishjokes.net