Heads I Win, Tails You Lose

A man once asked his newly-married son-in-law, “You will help me in the work that the chow gives me to do, now that you are one of us, will you not?”

And the son-in-law replied, “I will promise this. Whenever you go, I will stay at home, and when I stay at home, you will go and work.”

Pleased with the ready promise, the father said, “I thank you, my son.”

When the chow called the father, the son said, “This time you go, and I will stay at home,” and the father went.

And when the chow again called, the son said, “Now, I will stay at home, whilst you go.”

Then the father understood the promise of his son, and he did his government work alone until the day of his death.