Herschel was walking in the fields one day when a group of local farmers approached him. "O Herschel, the men of the bus station tell us you are a wise man, but all you say to us is nonsense. Are we not worthy of enlightenment? Why do you refuse us your wisdom?"
"But I have been telling you all that I know," said Herschel. He paused, and began again, "I tell you then that the truth is like a cabbage. If you have a cabbage, and one by one you peel away the leaves, when you remove the last leaf, what do you have?"
"Why, nothing!" answered one.
"No," replied Herschel. "You still have the very same cabbage. It is only arranged differently."
The farmers looked at one another, and gradually they nodded their assent.
"But," continued Herschel, "the truth is not like a cabbage in that way..."
Like most of the prophet Herschel's teachings, this passage is in dispute. For many years both the Herschel-as-Urdu scholars and the Herschel-as-from-Milwaukee scholars claimed this passage as the definitive proof for their interpretation. The Milwaukee-ists note that the cabbage was unknown in ancient central Asia. The Urdu-ists, though somewhat flummoxed on this point, counter that it is equally preposterous that the residents of Milwaukee would show any familiarity with vegetables. After much debate, the two sides have reached an uneasy truce on this issue; they have agreed that the cabbage is only a metaphor.
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