DO IT YOURSELF
In Eastern European anecdotes, Aristid and Tasilo are the names of two characters, personifying typical pre-World War II noblemen – foolish, lazy and conceited, of no use to the society.
Aristid and Tasilo owned a cattle-farm. They made a nice living selling milk, producing dairy products and selling male calves for meat. One day, during a big fire, their stable burned down and all their cattle perished. Aristid became very dejected.“What are we going to do?” - he wailed. “Where will our livelihood come from?”“Don’t worry,” - consoled him Tasilo. “A small shed, with one calf, was not destroyed. We shall take the calf to be bred, it will have calves, which in turn will be inseminated and soon enough we will have a big herd.”Aristid perked up a little. They took the calf to the village and asked one of the peasants:“How much do you charge for having your bull mount our heifer.”“Just $200,” - replied the peasant.“Don’t you think that it is too much?” - asked Tasilo.The owner of the bull retorted angrily:“If you don’t like the price, maybe you should do it yourself.”Both Aristid and Tasilo found this to be a capital idea. They returned to their farm and threw a coin to decide who will perform the deed. It turned out, that Tasilo was the man. He took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves and entered the shed. For a while only muffled bangs, crashes and clangs were heard from the inside and then Tasilo reemerged, breathing heavily, with torn clothing and bleeding from several scratches.“What on Earth happened to you?” - asked Aristid in astonishment.“Do you know how difficult it is to flip a cow on its back?”
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