A friend's high priestess sent her a beautifully crafted wooden wheel for Yule. An apt gift, certainly.
(Witches are big into wheels. Life, Time, Space: for us, it's all Wheels.)
Naturally, my friend called her up to thank her.
“What's the symbolism of the ten spokes?” she asked. (The Witches' Wheel usually has eight.)
“No, it has eight spokes,” said the high priestess.
“No, it has ten,” said my friend.
Myself, I was pretty disappointed to hear this story.
(Talk about a teachable moment. When your student asks you a question that you can't answer, what should be the first words out of your mouth? Obviously, "Well, what do you think?" As a teacher, you don't teach stuff; you teach thinking.)
First off, I was disappointed that woman hadn't looked carefully enough at the wheel—it was a gift, after all—to realize that it had ten spokes rather than the canonical eight.
Second, I was disappointed that she didn't know the symbolism of the ten-spoked wheel.
Third, I was disappointed that she didn't try to bullshit her way out of it.