A doctor took his apprentice to visit a patient. The apprentice was amazed that the doctor knew what his patient had eaten by just checking his pulse. When he asked the doctor the secret, he replied that doctors must never appear a fool in the patients’ eyes. The doctor explained that he used to look under his patients’ beds to check for crumbs and so would come to know what they had eaten.
The next day, the doctor sent the apprentice to visit the same patient. Trying to look like a skilful physician, the apprentice told the patient that he should not have eaten anything. The patient said that he had not even had a drop of water. The apprentice looked under the bed and confidently declared that he had eaten straw, as there were bits under his bed. The patient, who had heard the conversation between the doctor and the apprentice the day before replied, “Don’t think I’m an ass like you are.”