The Brilliant Old Gringo

An Associate Justice of the Supreme Court was sitting by a river when a Traveler approached and said: "I wish to cross. Will it be lawful to use this boat?"

"It will," was the reply; "it is my boat."

The Traveler thanked him, and pushing the boat into the water embarked and rowed away. But the boat sank and he was drowned.

"Heartless man!" said an Indignant Spectator. "Why did you not tell him that your boat had a hole in it?"

"The matter of the boat's condition," said the great jurist, "was not before me."

- Ambrose Bierce, A Defective Petition, in The Collected Writings of Ambrose Bierce, 612 (5th ed. 1970).