sermon, he got up in the pulpit and asked the audience if they knew what
he intended to preach about.

"No," they replied.

"Well, then, I shall not tell you," and he stepped down. The next Friday
he asked the same question, and now, taught by experience, they answered:

"Yes, we know."

"Well, then, I need not tell you," and again he stepped down.

The third Friday when the same question was put, the people said, "Some of
us know and some don't know."

"In that case," said the preacher-wag, "let those of you who know tell
those that don't know." And again there was no sermon.

And now to close this chapter here is a very topsy-turvy story with a
puzzle in it:

The Arabs relate that when the prophet Jonah fled from Joppa to Tarshish,
there were thirty passengers, all told, in the ship. The storm grew very
fierce, and out of fear, the captain determined to throw half the crew
overboard, that is, fifteen men. But he knew that fifteen of the thirty
were true believers, and fifteen were infidels, and among them, Jonah
also. To avoid suspicion and accomplish his purpose he put the thirty men
all in a row in such a way that by counting out every ninth man, the
believers alone remained and the unbelievers were all of them one by one
cast into the sea.