The Psychology of judgement & decision making

There was once a Jewish tailor who had the temerity to open his shop on the main street of an antisemitic town. To drive him out of town, a gang of youths visited the shop each day, standing in the entrance and shouting, “Jew! Jew!”

After several sleepless nights, the tailor finally devised a plan. The next time that the gang came to threaten him, the tailor announced that anyone who called him a Jew would get a dime. He then handed dimes to each member of the gang. Delighted with their new incentive, members of the gang returned the next day, shouting “Jew! Jew!”, and the tailor, smiling, gave each one a nickel (explaining that he could only afford a nickel that day). The gang left satisfied because, after all, a nickel is a nickel.

Then, on the following day, the tailor gave out only pennies to each gang member, again explaining that he could afford no more money than that. Well, a penny was not much of an incentive, and members of the gang began to protest. When the tailor replied that they could take it or leave it, they decided to leave it, shouting that the tailor was crazy if he thought they would call him a Jew for only a penny!””