The following was told by George Jessel, the "toastmaster general", when asked to give a short opening speech at an affair many years ago, using the idea of thinking before you speak.
An Arab, the last survivor of a caravan attacked by thieves, was crawling toward what he thought was a distant oasis when he came upon a lamp half buried in the sand. Thinking that perhaps it was like the Alladin's lamp of his childhood desert fairy tales, he rubbed it and instantly a genie appeared.
The genie said to the Arab "I am the genie of the lamp and because you have freed me, you get three wishes. Do you have a first wish, master?"
The Arab thought a moment and replied "Yes". I woudl like a caravan to replace the caravan I lost to thieves."
The genie said "Turn around and gaze on the largest caravan that ever existed in Arabia." The Arab could not believe that many camels existed in all of Arabia.
The genie then asked "Do you have a second wish, oh master?" and the Arab replied "Yes. I would like to have a palace larger than any that has ever been seen in these parts."
The genie replied "If you just walk over this sand dune master, I think you will like what you see." The Arab was greeted by the sight of a palace stretching from right to left as far as he could see. None this large had ever existed before.
The genie then said "You ahve one more wish master. Do you want to use it now?"
The Arab thought for a moment and said " I wish that all Jews in the world had never existed."
Instantly the Arab was back in the desert, miserable as ever.
There is amoral to the is story an it is that he should have thought before he spoke You never know when you will meet a Jewish genie.
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