A law professor in Germany once handed his students a case study that looked deceptively simple.
Two neighbours, the story went, were locked in a bitter dispute.
One owned a row of apple trees whose heavy branches stretched over the fence.
The other grew Tulips in her garden.
The tulip owner filed a case that every autumn, ripe apples tumbled down—straight into her garden, crushing her delicate tulips, and demanded compensation for her ruined flowers.
The apple grower insisted the apples were nature’s doing, not his fault.
The students dove in eagerly.
Half of them argued passionately for the tulip owner, citing sections of property law, civil codes, and precedents.
The other half defended the orchard owner just as fiercely, pointing to natural law and ownership boundaries.
The exam papers came back thick with logic, references, and Latin phrases.
When the professor finally looked up from the stack of papers, he didn’t smile or frown.
He simply said:
“Apples fall in autumn, Tulips bloom in spring.”
The room fell silent.
A few students shifted in their seats. One began to raise a hand in protest, but the professor continued gently:
“Before you quote the law, use your eyes. Before you argue, use your mind. The law matters—but common sense comes first.”
And with that, he gathered the papers and left the room—having given them a lesson no textbook could ever teach.
(Posted as received from a friend)
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ReplyDeletebeautiful lesson of commn Sense
ReplyDeleteIs common sense innate and not to be learned?
ReplyDeleteBoth.... innate and it can be learned also - from experience and watching others
DeleteVery nice!
ReplyDeleteWith roles reversed:
Professor: Martin Luther King taught us an important lesson when he said "If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl, but by all means, keep moving forward."
Student: But, Sir, shouldn’t he have first told us where we should be heading?
Nice..... The student or a professor - the status does not matter. The important thing is that first of all, the message should be very clear, and secondly, the listeners or receptors should also be observant and attentive, and must use logic and common sense as well.
DeleteThank you for your comments along with a relative incidence.