Stingy

Bill and Pete had been friends from childhood. Now they were grown. Pete had recently married, though Bill remained single. When they met, Pete complained that his wife was not what he thought she was before they married. She was becoming a very stingy woman. Every time they met, Pete complained, more and more, of how stingy his wife was.

One day Bill went to Pete's home to visit with Pete's wife. While talking with her he held out his hand in a tight fist and asked her, "If I always held my hand in a fist like this, what would you call it?"

She looked at his hand and replied, "I would call it a deformity."

"And if I always held my hand like this," holding his hand with the palm flat, "what would you call that?"

"I would call that a deformity too."

"I thought so." Bill arose and left the house. Thereafter, Pete's wife no longer acted in such a manner.