A man walks into the produce section of a grocery store

He stares longingly at the apples for several minutes before letting out a long sigh, grabbing a pear, and trudging to the checkout. He sits in the parking lot, takes out a paring knife, and unenthusiastically slices up and eats the fruit. He carefully wipes the knife clean with his handkerchief, disposes of the core, and leaves.



The next day, the man returns. Once again, he stares longingly at the apples, but grabs a pear instead. He slices it up and eats it unhappily in the parking lot. Once he's done, he wipes his knife clean, disposes of the core, and leaves.



He returns again the next day. Again he stares longingly at the apples, buys a pear, and goes out to the parking lot to cut it up and eat it.



An employee observes the man all three times and decides to approach him. "Excuse me sir, but I couldn't help but notice you in the produce section these past three days. You look like you really want an apple."



The man nods slowly as he cuts a slice of fruit and eats it with a slight grimace.



"Yet you buy a pear every time and don't seem to like it at all." The man nods again. Baffled, the employee continues, "why don't you buy an apple to eat if you don't like pears?"


The man pulls out his handkerchief and slowly cleans the blade of his paring knife. He lets out a long, sad sigh before he answers. "I haven't got an appling knife."