“I don’t know.”

A story I tell often.

There was this old rabbi somewhere in Russia, who would visit a synagogue near the town square every morning. Not a day had he skipped this routine. A policeman patroling the square did not like Jews, and he hated the sight of the rabbi passing him each morning. He wanted to insult the rabbi, and was waiting for an occasion.

One morning, as the rabbi approached the town square, the policeman walked up to him and asked, “Sir, may I know where you are going?”

The rabbi replied, “I don’t know.”

The policeman seized on this and said, “Old man, you are lying to me. I know you are going to that synagogue over there. I have seen you every day. I’m going to arrest you for lying to a member of the police force.”

And the policeman took the rabbi to the nearest police station and put him in one of the cells. As he was locking the door, the policeman proudly remarked, “Now, do you realize who is superior?”

The rabbi replied, “My son, I don’t know what wrong I have done. I told you I didn’t know where I was going.”

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