While dining at a small inn one day, Cosimo de Medici took pity on a peasant eating a very simple meal and asked the innkeeper to bring the man a large Anjou pear.

"What's this?" the peasant exclaimed. "It is called an Anjou," Cosimo explained. "Bah," the peasant replied. "You probably expect me to thank you, but sir, in my country we eat only little pears that grow wild. We feed pears such as this to the pigs."

"Well," Cosimo declared, collecting the pear from the table with understandable indignation, "I do not."