Sir Isaac Newton was sometimes very absent-minded. One day a visitor stopped by to see him. A servant told the visitor that he would have to sit down and wait, since Sir Isaac was in his study and could not be disturbed. Soon another servant brought in Newton’s dinner–a boiled chicken under a cover–and sat it close to the visitor. After an hour passed and Newton still did not appear, the visitor was so hungry that he ate the chicken.

Newton finally came in and apologized for having kept his visitor waiting so long. He said, “Give me but leave to take my short dinner, and I shall be at your service; I am fatigued and faint.” On removing the cover to his dinner he saw only a pile of bones. Embarrassed at appearing so ridiculous before a stranger, he put back the cover and said, “See what we studious people are: I forgot I had dined.”

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