The Cow from Minsk

The only cow in a small town in Poland stopped giving milk. The people
did some research and found that they could buy a cow from Moscow for
2,000 rubles, or one from Minsk for 1,000 rubles. Being frugal, they
bought the cow from Minsk. The cow was wonderful. It produced lots of
milk all the time, and the people were amazed and very happy. They
decided to acquire a bull to mate with the cow and produce more cows
like it. Then they would never have to worry about the milk supply
again. They bought a bull and put it in the pasture with their beloved
cow. However, whenever the bull came close to the cow, the cow would
move away. No matter what approach the bull tried, the cow would move
away from the bull and he could not succeed in his quest.

The people were very upset and decided to ask the rabbi, who was very
wise, what to do. They told the rabbi what was happening. "Whenever the
bull approaches our cow, she moves away. If he approaches from the
back, she moves forward. When he approaches her from the front, she
backs off. An approach from the side and she just walks away to the other side."

The rabbi thought about this for a minute and asked, "Did you buy this
cow from Minsk?"

The people were dumbfounded, since they had never mentioned where they
had gotten the cow.

"You are truly a wise rabbi," they said. "How did you know we got the
cow from Minsk?"

The rabbi answered sadly, "My wife is from Minsk."