A Little Humor: A Rabbi's Tax Audit

A young IRS auditor was excited to track down high-powered tax evaders. 

Anxious for his first high-powered audit, he was a bit dismayed when his assignment was to audit a Rabbi.

Looking over the books and taxes were pretty straight forward, and the Rabbi was clearly very frugal, so he thought he’d make his day interesting by having a little fun with the Rabbi.

“Rabbi,” he said, “I noticed that you buy a lot of candles.”

“Yes,” answered the Rabbi.

“Well, Rabbi, what do you do with the candle drippings?” he asked.

“A good question,” noted the Rabbi. “We actually save them up and when we have enough, we send them back to the candle maker. And every now and then, they send us a free box of candles.”

“Oh,” replied the auditor somewhat disappointed that his unusual question actually had a practical answer, so he thought he’d go on, in his obnoxious way.

“Rabbi, what about all these matzo purchases? What do you do with the crumbs from the matzo?”

“Ah, yes,” replied the Rabbi calmly, “we actually collect up all the crumbs from the matzo and when we have enough, we send them in a box back to the manufacturer and every now and then, they send a box of matzo balls.”

“Oh,” replied the auditor, thinking hard now how to fluster the Rabbi. “Well, Rabbi,” he went on, “what do you do with all the foreskins from the circumcisions?”

“Yes, here too, we do not waste,” answered the Rabbi. “What we do is save up all the foreskins, and when we have enough we actually send them to the IRS.”

“The IRS? What would the IRS do with them?” questioned the auditor in disbelief.

“I don’t know the details, but about once a year, they send us a little prick like you,” replied the Rabbi.”

Note: The above photo is of comedian and director Mel Brooks from his film, Robin Hood: Men in Tights.