The ice-cream story

This story was told to me by an older cousin; the moral of the story is the need to be assertive; if you’re not, there are no limits as to how far other people will push you.

A man was sitting and reading his newspaper. This was his day-off from work, and his wife and children were visiting his mother-in-law in another city. In other words, perfect peace and quiet. But it didn’t last. There was a knock on the door; a little boy, his neighbor’s son, was standing there.

“The handle of our ice-cream machine is broken. Can we borrow yours?” asked the boy.

The man goes to his ice-cream machine, detaches the handle, and gives it to the boy. (I should clarify that, at that time, home-made ice-cream required hard manual labor, there was as yet no electric ice-cream machines. The choice of buying commercial ice-cream did exist though).

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The boy is standing at the door and he is holding the handle.

“It turned out that our ice-cream machine is not working. Can we borrow yours?”

So the man goes back, wheels the machine to the door, and gives it to the boy.

The boy has a look of surprise. He then hands him the handle and asks: “aren’t you going to reattach it?”

The man reattaches the handle. But the boy doesn’t budge.

“I am a 12-year-old boy. How do you expect me to take this heavy machine to my apartment?”

The man takes the machine, carries it down two flights of stairs, and leaves it at the door of the boy’s apartment. He then returns to his apartment and resumes his reading. Now I will have peace, he thinks. But he is wrong.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

It’s the boy again with a new demand: “We realized that we have neither ice nor dry ice. Can we borrow some from you?”

So the man again complies and assumes that this time he will finally have peace.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

“We need milk and cream. We don’t have any left.”

The man goes to his icebox and fills two pitchers with milk and cream.

The boys looks at the pitchers and frowns. “This will not be enough, we have company.”

So the man gives him all the milk and cream he has in the house.

But the boy gives him a dirty look and says: “how do you expect me to carry all this milk and cream by myself?”

So the man helps him out.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

This time the man is ready. When he sees the boy, he hands him a large bowl full of luscious strawberries.

But the boy looks disappointed, he tells the man: “We had our hearts set on chocolate ice-cream.”

“I am sorry, but all I have are strawberries. I may have vanilla, would you like me to check?”

The boy shakes his head vigorously and replies, “no, no, we despise vanilla ice-cream.”

The man is now certain that his neighbor has everything he needs to make ice-cream. He is sure he will not be disturbed any more.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

“We hate to impose on you again, but my father hurt his right arm while playing tennis yesterday; can you come over and turn the handle of the ice-cream machine?”

Site Search Tags:
none