A new professor, known for his unconventional methods, was giving his first final exam to a large class of university students. The students were nervous, having heard rumors about his strange tests.
The professor handed out the exam papers. To their surprise, there was only one question on the paper:
“What is courage?“
The students looked at each other, confused. Some started writing furiously, trying to define courage in philosophical terms. Others stared blankly, unsure how to approach such a broad question.
After an hour, the professor stood up. “Time’s up!” he announced. “Please hand in your papers.”
As the students reluctantly brought their papers forward, one young man, who hadn’t written a single word, calmly walked up to the professor’s desk. He picked up his exam paper, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it directly into the wastebasket.
Then, he turned to the professor, looked him straight in the eye, and said, “That’s courage, Professor.”
The professor smiled, took out his grade book, and wrote down an ‘A+’.
The other students, who had written pages of definitions, looked on in stunned silence. One brave student finally raised his hand. “Professor, we wrote essays! He just threw his paper away and said ‘That’s courage’! How is that an A+?”
The professor chuckled. “Because, young man, he was the only one brave enough to walk out of this exam without writing a single word, knowing he’d fail, just to make a point. That takes real courage.“