Half blind, totally blind

[Ithoriel]

So, an inspector is evaluating an asylum and is intrigued to see a steady trickle of inmates walk past going,"Half blind, totally blind!" only to return a short while later clutching a piece of paper and going, "Not mad! Not mad!"

Fascinated, he heads in the same direction and finds the institution's psychiatrist reviewing inmate suitability for release by asking what would happen if he poked out one of their eyes and then what would happen if he poked out the other.

"What on earth are you doing!?" the inspector yells.

"Checking the patient's understanding of reality, of cause and effect," replies the psychiatrist.

"But they've just learned the answers parrot fashion," cries a frustrated inspector.

"Surely not," says the psychiatrist,"but I'll vary the question just to show you."

The psychiatrist asks the next inmate what would happen if he cut off one of the inmate's ears.

"I'd be half blind," comes back the answer.

"And if I then cut off the other ear?"

"I'd be totally blind!"

"See!" shouts the inspector,"They've learned by rote. How on earth would losing your ears make you blind??"

"Well," the inmate explains,"if I lost one ear my hat would fall over one eye and if I lost both it would cover my eyes completely!"

[Techno]

  
Cheers - Phil