The Cobbler Turned Doctor

"One drop cures every poison!" shouted the man in the market. "One drop! Just one drop!"

Nobody in the town knew he was really a cobbler. Back home he had made such poor shoes that his money ran out, and then his bread ran out, so he had walked to a place where no one knew his face and called himself a doctor. He shouted so loud and so long that people believed him. Soon the whole town was buying his little bottles.

Then the cobbler fell sick himself. The governor of the town came to his bed with a cup and filled it with water. He pretended to stir in some poison, and then he added one drop of the cure. "Drink," said the governor, "and you shall have a fine reward."

The cobbler stared at the cup. His hands began to shake. "I can't!" he cried. "I know nothing about medicine. I am only famous because the crowd shouted my name!"

The governor called all the people of the town together. "What fools you have been!" he said. "Nobody would hire this man to make shoes for your feet. And you have trusted him with your heads!"