A bright, young, graduate joined the Inland Revenue. Anxious for his first investigation he was a bit dismayed when he wasassigned to audit a Rabbi.
Looking over the books and taxes was pretty straight forward and the Rabbiwas clearly very frugal, so he thought he’d make his day interesting byhaving a little fun with the Rabbi.
"Rabbi", he said, "I noticed that you buy a lot of candles."
"Yes, " answered the Rabbi.
"Well, Rabbi, what do you do with the candle drippings?" he asked.
"A good question, " noted the Rabbi."We actually save them up, and when wehave enough, we send them back to the candle maker. And every now and then, they send us a free box of candles."
"Oh, " replied the auditor somewhat disappointed that his unusual questionactually had a practical answer.
So he thought he’d go on, in the traditional obnoxious way. . .
"Rabbi, what about all these matzo purchases? What do you do with the crumbsfrom the matzo?"
"Ah, yes, " replied the Rabbi calmly, "we actually collect up all the crumbsfrom the matzo and when we have enough, we send them in a box back to the manufacturer, and every now and then, they send a box of matzo balls."
"Oh, " replied the auditor, thinking hard how to fluster the Rabbi.
"Well, Rabbi, " he went on, "what do you do with all the foreskins from the circumcisions?"
"Yes, here too, we do not waste, " answered the Rabbi."What we do is saveup all the foreskins, and when we have enough we actually send them to the Inland Revenue"
"The Inland Revenue?" asked the auditor in disbelief.
"Ahh, yes, " replied the Rabbi, "the Inland Revenue . . . and about once a year, theysend us a little prick like you."