Many years ago, in a small village in the province of Matera, a group of people were having fun with a man known as the “town idiot”, a man who lived by doing small jobs and begging.
Every day these people, meeting the “idiot” at the bar, had fun by giving him the possibility to choose between two 100 lira coins and a 500 lira banknote and he, punctually, always chose the two coins instead of the banknote and this is useless to say so was a source of derision.
One day, a gentleman who was watching the group have fun behind the poor man’s back, called him aside and pointed out that it was true that he was taking two coins but that the coins together were worth less than the single banknote. At this point the “idiot” replied: “Sir, I know well, I’m not that stupid. The banknote is worth more, but the day I choose it, the game will end and I will no longer “win” the 200 lire a day.”
In the photo Genaro or Genarín, the leather worker from Léon at the beginning of the 20th century who loved pomace, women and overalls. The story goes that he was hit by the first garbage truck on Good Friday 1929. A procession took place in his honor on the night of Holy Thursday.