At school:
-Teacher, is it true that you should never punish a child for something that they didn’t do?
-Yes, that is true
-Great, I haven’t done my homework
Explination
This is another one of those jokes that we enjoy because the pupil has come off better than the teacher, even though he has played a trick on her. In this case, the pupil has taken advantage of a lesson that we all know well and that is that it is unfair to punish someone for something that they have not done. But, obviously, this moral lesson refers to bad things such as breaking a window or hurting somebody on purpose.Although, now that we think about it…where does it state in this moral that it must only be applied to bad things? If you have not done a chore in some ways it means that you cannot be punished for it. In reality the pupil hasn’t done his homework badly, he just hasn’t done it at all, and therefore can’t receive a bad mark.
It is very astute thinking, but only in the context of a joke. If you think saying this to your teacher is a good idea you could end up with a hefty punishment…and we haven’t even mentioned what could happen when they find out at home what you have done. So, maybe best to just tell this joke to friends and family and not put it into practice.