The Absent – Minded Professor

I once knew a man whose memory was very bad. Richard Rudd was so forgetful that he sometimes forgot what he was talking about in the middle of a sentence. His wife had to constantly remind him about his appointments, his classes-even his meals! Since Rudd was a professor at a well-known university, his forgetfulness was often an embarrassment. It wasn’t that he was unintelligent, as some critical people tended to gossip. He was just very, very absent-minded.
One hot summer’s day, Professor Rudd decided to take his children to the beach. The seaside town he planned to visit was about three-hour train ride away. To make the trip interesting for his young children, he kept the name of the town a secret. Unfortunately, by the time Rudd had arrived at the train station, the poor forgetful man had forgotten the name of his destination himself. Luckily, a friend of his happened to be in the station. He offered to take care of the children while Rudd went back home to find out where he was going.
The professor’s wife was surprised to see him again so soon, but she was amused when she heard what was the matter. She distrusted his memory, so she wrote the name of the town on a piece of paper. Satisfied that she had solved the problem, she sent her husband off again. Ten minutes later she was astonished to see him outside the house again. The professor had forgotten where he had left his children.