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This reminds me of a story I read growing up. I can't find the reference now, though I'm pretty sure I read it in an old copy of "1000 and 1 Arabian Nights". T
by emeraldd 5y ago
This reminds me of a story I read growing up. I can't find the reference now, though I'm pretty sure I read it in an old copy of "1000 and 1 Arabian Nights".
The way it went, there was a poor man who lived above a restaurant who subsisted primarily on rice. He discovered that by eating by his open window, the smells drifting up from the food cooking below would add flavor to his meager meals. When the restaurant owner discovered this, he became angry and demanded payment from the poor man who naturally refused. The restaurant owner pulled the poor man before a local magistrate demanding that the magistrate force the man to pay. After thinking for a while, the magistrate asked if the poor man had any money, which he did. The magistrate then directs the poor man to jingle the money and said that the payment for the smell of the restaurant owner's food was the sound of money.
I can't retell it nearly as well as the original, which is probably online somewhere but not anywhere I know about ... :(
- vanboxel 5y agoThat story sounds exactly like Ooka Tadasuke. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Coka_Tadasuke#Famous_cases https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Coka_Tadasuke#Famous_case...
- Kaibeezy 5y agoThat’s Ooka for sure. I did a PowerPoint on it for my criminal law class.
- shpongled 5y agoInterestingly, wiki links back to a Paul Graham article referencing Ooka http://www.paulgraham.com/property.html http://www.paulgraham.com/property.html
- _nalply 5y agoFrom that article: > In 1956, an illustrated book was created by I.G. Edmonds, an American military officer. Published by the Pacific Stars & Stripes, it was called Solomon in Kimono: Tales of Ooka, a Wise Judge of Old Yedo.[4] Edmonds' work was published in 1961 as Ooka the Wise, and then in 1966 renamed The Case of the Marble Monster and Other Stories and made widely available to American schoolchildren by the Scholastic publishing company. Perhaps GP read the story thanks to Edmonds.
- elliekelly 5y agoThe Stolen Smell: https://vimeo.com/229846100 https://vimeo.com/229846100
- anchpop 5y ago[flagged]
- otikik 5y agoThe sound of money is pleasant to hear, hence he is compensated.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- lostcolony 5y agoIn that case you also probably think that everyone on HN who reads your post owes you compensation for your opinion on this matter, even though it was unasked for, you provided it for -your- own benefit, no terms were set and agreed to, and this isn't a context that normally is paid for. In short, no.
- baskethead 5y agoThen, the restaurant should compensate anyone who doesn’t like the smell. Or the restaurant should be fined for letting it’s smell escape the confines of its kitchen.
- otherme123 5y agoEconomic theory says, more or less, that the restaurant should try to avoid the smell escaping, and if they don't do it they are really not that interested. The OP history is the same tune: if you want your light and your wifi just for you, just install blinds and harden you router. And then try reach an agreement with your neighbor.
- jfrunyon 5y agoA restaurant could certainly invest in avoiding the smell escaping. But for most people smelling it, it's advertising, not a beneficial service. (Hey, just like some services you can either pay for -or- have ads when using! LOL) Moreover, preventing the smell from escaping from a restaurant might be difficult in areas or times where A/C isn't as common...
- cainxinth 5y agoThere's an old episode of the Simpsons (can't remember which), but something is wrong and Moe's Tavern is suddenly filled with noxious fumes. Barney inhales it and starts getting loopy, and Moe says something to effect of: "Hey, hey, I'm gonna have to start charging if you guys are getting high off this stuff!"
- gww 5y agoIt's from the Who Shot Mr. Burns Episode (S06E25) [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Shot_Mr._Burns%3F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Shot_Mr._Burns%3F
- hyperpallium2 5y agoI always objected that a smell is transported mass, whereas sound is waves. But paying for electromagnetic waves with pressure waves seems fair. (However, legal dispute resolution is about the effect on parties, not physical "reality".)
- hyperpallium2 5y agoIIRC There's a bit of suspense in the original, when the decision maker orders the poor man to take out the amount demanded, and place the coins on the table, which makes the sound.
- 0kl 5y agoCould it have been “Sanji and the Baker”?
- klipt 5y agoThat reminds me of a Jewish folktale: a poor man borrowed some silver spoons from a miser to impress his daughter's visiting suitor, and returned them with a tin teaspoon, explaining that the spoons had given birth. The miser thought this ridiculous but happily accepted the free teaspoon. The same thing happened the next week and the miser again accepted the free teaspoon. The week after the poor man asked to borrow the miser's gold candlesticks, because this was the last week the suitor was in town and he really wanted to impress. The next day he informed the miser that the candlesticks had sadly died. The miser, furious, dragged the poor man in front of the rabbi to demand justice. But the rabbi, listening to their story, concurred that since the miser was happy to accept the baby spoons, he must likewise accept the death of his gold candlesticks.
- dcow 5y agoRight so from these two folktales we seem to all agree that the author doesn’t have a valid argument. Personally I was disappointed when the essay morphed into grasping at straws trying to argue that companies should just pay all your living expenses because they’re benefiting from you being alive… I was expecting the author to take a copyleft direction and comment on all the absurd things we allow oppressive licensors to get away with in the modern digital era.. Oh well, another discussion for another time, I guess.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- aiProgMach 5y agoI came to write this same Arabic story, but my version was about a man that put a piece of bread above the meat grill hopping the smoke/taste will stick to it. The restaurant owner was a stingy person who saw a chance to take advantage of a poor man, for me it seems that the "free rider" is the restaurant owner who wanted to price the free smoke and if the judge was corrupted or stupid this man would become the inventor of capitalism before it was invented.
- wanderer2323 5y agoI've read it as a part of the Nasreddin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasreddin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasreddin) stories compilation. "Nasreddin and the smell of soup" https://continuingstudies.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/reading/smell1 https://continuingstudies.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/reading/...