A man walks past a beggar every day and gives him R10 and that continues for a year. Then suddenly the daily donation changes to R7,50.

“Well,” the beggar thinks, “it’s still better than nothing.”

A year passes in this way until the man’s daily donation suddenly becomes R5.

“What’s going on now?” the beggar asks his donor. “First you give me R10 every day, then R7,50 and now only R5. What’s the problem?”

“Well,” the man says, “last year my eldest son went to university. It’s very expensive, so I had to cut costs. This year my eldest daughter also went to university, so I had to cut my expenses even further.”

“And how many children do you have?” the beggar asks.

“Four,” the man replies.

“Well,” says the beggar, “I hope you don’t plan to educate them all at my expense.”