At an exhibition of the world’s best swordsmen, the third-place fencer took the stage. A fly was released, and with an arc of his sword he cut the fly in half. The crowd cheered. Then the second-place man sliced a fly into quarters. A hush fell in anticipation of the world’s greatest swordsman. His blade came down in a mighty arc—but the insect continued on its way! The crowd was aghast. The greatest swordsman had missed his targetpletely, yet he continued to smile.
“Why are you so happy?” someone yelled. “You missed!”
“Ah,”replied the swordsman, “yon weren’t watching very carefully. The fly lives yet, yes but he will never be a father.”
One day, Mr. Exact was standing at the door reciting a text word by word when a stranger came up to him and said, “Excuse me, but could you tell me where the department store is?”“Sure,” answered Exact. “You must go across the bridge and then turn right. The bridge is only 20 metres long.”
The stranger thanked him and went on his way. He was still walking across the bridge when someone suddenly called out from behind him.“Look out!” The stranger truned around and found it was Mr. Exact.
Breathing shallowly. Exact said, “I’m sorry that I gave you the wrong direction. I havee to tell you that the bridge is 40 metres long, not 20 metres as I originally said. If you go 20 metres and then turn right, you will fall into the water as I did a couple of years ago when someone gave me the same direction