Transcription
Something like 1952. Winston Churchill is newly back as prime minister. Queen Elizabeth II is newly on the throne in her 20s. And they're hosting an extraordinary banquet at Buckingham Palace for a whole host of invited dignitaries.
And halfway through the meal, someone comes up to the top table and says, "We've got a minor problem here. One of the very distinguished guests, we don't know who, has stolen one of the salt shakers."
Sounds fairly trivial. Bear in mind, the salt shakers are solid gold. They're worth a few thousand pounds each. They date back to George III. Dilemma. How do you solve that problem? Do you take the hit and just let them steal the salt shaker or do you just create a diplomatic incident by accusing someone very distinguished of theft?
And Churchill just goes, "Leave this to me." And he takes the matching pepper pot from the table and he just puts in his breast pocket and he waits. And after the meal, the miscreant is standing on his or her own. And Churchill just sidles up to her, pulls out the little pepper pot from his own pocket and says, "I think we've both been spotted. We probably better put these back." [laughter]
Now, the genius of though that is he or she probably didn't believe that he was in the business of heisting the table wear. It didn't matter because by presenting himself as a fellow offender rather than as an accuser, the emotional response is totally