Storytime, or Not Knowing Somebody From a Load of Hay

One bright fall day, little Fred (for in those days jheem had yet to take Sanskrit) and his Uncle Bill were driving an old Ford F-100 truck with a full load of hay to a local racetrack. Along the way, they passed a decrepid old farm with a handpainted sign out front that read: "Wood for Sale" only the s in sale was written backwards.

Fred: Ha! The guy who wrote that sign sure was ignorant! He got his s backwards.

Uncle Bill: Well, not really. He did it on purpose, so that folks who buy anything from him would feel superior in their spelling skills, forget themselves, and not bargain as hard as they should over the price. You see, I went to grammar school with the fellow who owns that farm, and he spells as well as the rest of us.

Fred: Hmm.

Later in life, and while travelling the Old South, jheem (for he had since studied Panini's grammar, as well as Shakespeare's) was supsicious of any self-professed ignorance on the part of any part of the populace, and learned to judge a person's morals by his actions and not his accent or grammar.

Moral of the story: A person may change his accent or grammar but not his ethics.