An old friend describes how, when living in Paris and both hungry and impoverished, he went into a boulangerie and asked for just 200 grams of patg. When the butcher gave him too much, my friend objected, knowing he could not pay for it. But when the butcher then gave him too little, my friend objected again, because he was so hungry. After several of these exchanges, as the butcher put more back on the thin paper, and then took less away, always getting closer to the maximum my friend could afford, the butcher finally said, in exasperation, "Monsieur, I am not a jeweler."

Philip Chase Bobbitt, Philip Chase Bobbitt - Refl…, loc. 447