The Visit

From the blog of La Caja de Pandora, Pandorha wrote the following story which I have translated:

In the beginning of the 1st century of our era, there were two  schools headed by two prestigious wise men, Hilel and Shamal. Each school was devoted to the study of Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and the students were of promising talent. However, there was a problem of rivalry among the two groups of students and they took every opportunity to discredit one another.

One day, the students of Shamal thought that the best way to discredit the students of the other school, was to humilliate  the wise man Hilel and so they made up a strategy.

They thought of catching a butterfly and carrying it alive in the hand of one of them to the house where Hilel lived and upon arrival they would ask him:

Professor Hilel, this butterfly that I have in my hand is it dead or is it alive? If Hilel  should reply that it is alive, then the one carrying it will close his fist and demonstrate that it is dead.  But on the contrary,  the butterfly will be set free upon opening his hand,  and prove that the butterfly is alive.

The idea was infallible and they did as planned. They caught a butterfly and one of the students of Shamal took it in his hand. They went to the house of Hilel and knocked on his door. The wise man asked them:

-What made you come?
 The students replied:
-We want to find out how intelligent you are.
 Hilel then asked.
-And how do you intend to do that?
 We will ask you a question.
-Go ahead.
-This butterfly inside my hand, is it dead or is it alive?
 Hilel looked at them slowly and replied:
-The decision lies in your hands.