Always good to make smalltalk. Besides it being a lovely way to pass some time, one might learn something or, occasionally more interesting, hear the latest gossip. Did you know that the wife of … well you fill in the rest.
While chatting away, a beautiful butterfly gracefully floated by. Nice but unfortunately that one is heading straight for my cabbages I remarked. Why is that bad my interlocutor asked? Caterpillars of course I said! He looked at me as if I he had just seen me come down from the moon. Caterpillars are bad he said, butterflies are good! I was puzzled. But caterpillars are baby butterflies I uttered. No, no he said they are different they have nothing in common!
Fortunately a lady had overheard the conversation and explained that indeed caterpillars are basically baby butterflies.
This short story demonstrates how difficult it is to gauge the local level of knowledge on basically anything. There still is a generation who hardly have had any education and what they know comes from experience, friends, the family and naturalmente the TV.
This man does learn fast though, for weeks I have been hearing how next summer all butterflies will be shot right out of the air to protect the cabbages in his vegetable garden!
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