Thomas Edison was concerned about the way visitors to his office helped themselves to his expensive Havana cigars. Since he wouldn’t lock them up, his secretary suggested he have cigars made from cabbage leaves and substitute them for the Havanas. Edison agreed, then forgot about it, and only remembered later when the Havanas started vanishing again. When he asked his secretary why the bogus cigars hadn’t arrived, she told him they had arrived and had been given to his manager—who, not knowing they were fakes, had packed them for Edison to take on a trip. “And do you know,” Edison laughed, “I smoked every one of those cigars myself!”

Today in the Word, December 16, 1992