When my son Gene was about 12 years old, I started helping him learn to work. I 1 twenty chickens and asked him to 2 them. I told him that they would be his own chickens and we would 3 the eggs from him. However, he would have to buy chicken 4 with the money he made from the eggs. Whatever money was 5 would be his to keep. Gene was 6, thinking he would make his first 7 .
After several weeks' successful work, I began to 8 that egg production was going down. I 9 nothing about it. Then one night, Gene told me he didn't have 10 money to buy the feed. He said the chickens had never 11 a meal and he could not figure out why some of them had stopped 12 eggs.
Then I asked him if he had 13 the amount of feed he had given the chickens. He was 14. It was like he did not think anyone would ever 15 what he had done. After a long 16, he said yes. He thought he would make more money if he gave them 17 food. I asked him, “Did you fool the chickens?”
I was just astonished at the question in my own 18. I was dumbfounded at the 19 of it. Yes, you can fool everyone else, but you can't “fool the chickens”, because 20, you will find out, as the saying goes,“ What goes around comes around.”
