Assume You’re Presuming the Premise

The young man approached the sage rabbi. “Rabbi, please tell me the secrets of the Law.”
     “I’m not sure you are yet wise enough to understand,” the rabbi replied.
     “Test my wisdom.”
     “All right. I’ll ask you a question. Two men came down a chimney long after the last fire has burned out. The two are standing in the house looking directly at each other, not saying a word. One man’s face is covered with soot. The other man’s face is perfectly clean. Who went to wash his face?”
     The young man was puzzled. “This question is surprisingly easy to answer. The man with the dirty face, of course.”
     The rabbi shook his head no. “The man with the dirty face looked at the man with the clean face and assumed his face was clean, too. The man with the clean face looked at his companion and assumed his own face was dirty. You’ve not answered my question correctly. I believe you must develop more wisdom before I tell you the secrets of the Law.”
     “Please give me another opportunity, Rabbi.”
     “All right. Two men came down a chimney long after the last fire has burned out. The two are standing in the house looking directly at each other, not saying a word. One man’s face is covered with soot. The other man’s face is perfectly clean. Who went to wash his face?”
     “Rabbi, that is the identical question. I now realize it is only the man with the clean face who is stirred to wash up.”
     Again, the rabbi shook his head no. “I assume you think you heard me say a few moments ago that the man with the clean face went to wash. All I said was that the man with the clean face looked at his companion and assumed his own face was dirty.”
     “What is the correct answer, Rabbi?”
     “They both got washed. How could anybody come down a chimney and be so presumptuous to conclude he didn’t need to wash his face? The man with the clean face was that way because he washed before the man with the dirty face did.”
     The young man contemplated all this, then said to the rabbi, “May I assume that, in this house, there was only one place to wash one’s face?”
     “Yes. That is a wise observation. Perhaps you may soon begin your Talmudic studies.”

Click below for more:
Demand to Know Characteristics of Bias
Climb Out of Mistaken Assumptions
Assume Shoppers May Not Understand Why

My thanks to Rabbi Chaim Zaklos for having recently told me the old story which I was then so presumptuous, and conceivably unwise, to twist like a challah into the tale I’ve told you here.