As noted elsewhere, the good people of Chelm, although dismissed by the outside world as a collection of wooly headed simpletons, are in fact endowed with an astonishing wisdom, as the following tale clearly shows.

Winter was approaching, and always observant of their religious duties, the villagers decided to employ a man named Shmuel to walk round their homes in the early morning, alerting them to the need to get up and come to say their prayers. After all, on a dark winter morning, when the covers are warm and there is frost on the window, who does not need the help of a voice outside the window reminding us to pray? On the day of the first snowfall, though, when the prayers were finished the villagers began to discuss something important.

“Today, the snow is very beautiful,” said one.

“The purity of the Creator spread all around,” said another.

“Very inspiring,” all the villagers agreed. “Praise God and His wonders.”

“But it would be more inspiring if we could see the snow without it being trampled by Shmuel.”

This was a point. Shmuel walked around every house, leaving big bootprints everywhere – and Shmuel seemed particularly gifted in the foot department. But what to do? Shmuel’s duty was necessary – but the more they thought about it, the more it seemed a discourtesy to the Creator to not look upon the beautiful carpet of glittering snow undisturbed. Why else had God put it there, if not to be admired?

Even King Solomon might have been puzzled by this, but wisdom will always find a way! At last, the villagers came to the perfect solution – a solution that would allow Shmuel to continue to wake them in time for their prayers, and without him setting a single foot in the new-fallen snow: the villagers unanimously decided that from now on Shmuel would stand on a table, and four strong men of the village would carry him from house to house to do his work.