A couple whose marriage was going on the rocks sought the advice of a marriage counselor. The counselor pleaded with them to patch up their quarrel, but they were adamant.
“So,” said the counselor, “you know the consequences and you want to part. Remember this. You must divide your property equally.”
The wife flared up. “You mean the $4,000 I have saved up? I must give him half? My money?”
“Yes,” said the counselor. “He gets $2,000. You get $2,000.”
“What about my furniture? I paid for that.”
“The same thing,” answered the counselor. “Your husband gets the bedroom and the living room; you get the dining room and the kitchen.”
There was a challenging gleam in the wife’s eye.
“What about our three children?”
That stumped him. Shrewdly he assayed the situation, then he came up with a Solomonic answer, “Go back and live together until your fourth child is born. Then you take two children and your husband takes two.”
The wife shook her head. “No, I’m sure that wouldn’t work out. If I depended on him, I wouldn’t have the three I got.”