In a small fish shop, the owner proudly hung a large sign that read, “Fresh Fish for Sale.” No sooner had it gone up than a passerby stopped, chuckled, and said, “Has this place been selling bad fish all this time that now it has to claim the fish are fresh?” Embarrassed by the comment, the owner quickly erased the word fresh from the sign.
The next day, another customer came by, looked at the sign, and laughed, “Why does it even say ‘for sale here’? Who would go to a flower shop expecting to buy fish?” The shopkeeper, worried about being criticized again, removed the words for sale here from the sign.
A few days later, yet another shopper visited, glanced at the sign, and joked, “If you’re not selling fish, why display them? Why say ‘we sell’?” Once again, the owner hurriedly removed the words we sell, leaving just a single word on the sign: fish. He thought, now at last, nobody could find fault.
A short time later, a neighbor came over, looked at the sign, and shook their head, saying, “Honestly, you don’t even need a sign. Everyone can smell the fish from down the street. Anyone passing by sees the fish piled up and knows you’re selling them.”
Hearing this, the shopkeeper finally took down the sign completely, realizing that no matter what he wrote, people would always find something to criticize.