I ran across this story that I think is worth sharing. It is attributed to appellate Judge David Bazelon.
A Chinese father calls his children to a family meeting and tells them that somebody has pushed the family outhouse into the Yangtse River and asks somebody to confess; nobody comes forward. The father says, “Let me tell you a story, maybe this will help loosen your tongues. In a far away place a long time ago there was a young man named George Washington, and his father said, ‘who chopped down the family cherry tree?’ And the boy came forward and said ‘I cannot tell a lie, it was I,’ and the father embraced him and kissed him and hugged him, and he became the President of his country. Now, does anybody want to tell me who pushed the family outhouse into the Yangtse River?” The youngest child came forward and said, “Daddy, it was I,” throwing his arms out for the expected embrace. The father punched him and kicked him and knocked him down. The young boy looking up said, “but Daddy, when George Washington told his father that he had knocked down his cherry tree, his father kissed him.” And the father said, “yes, but when George Washington chopped down his father’s cherry tree, his father was not sitting in that cherry tree.”