A holy man was on a pilgrimage to Santiago. One day he was passing through a remote rural area, seeing not a soul. As the sun was setting and he was resigning himself to a cold and hungry night in the open, he saw lights in the distance -- a farmhouse!
He made his way over and knocked on the door. After a moment the farmer answered, and seeing our holy man, immediatelt drew him inside, took his pack and cloak from his back, sat him down in the only comfortable chair in the house, in front of a roaring fire, and gave him food and drink.
That night our holy man slept in the best bed in the house. "You should get a good night's sleep," the farmer told him, "and since my wife died I don't sleep much anyway. I'll just bunk down in the kitchen."
The next morning the holy man woke feeling refreshed and invigorated. He made his way to the kitchen, where the farmer gave him breakfast and told him to relax while he put together a picnic for his lunch.
"Listen," said our holy man, "you've been wonderful. I want to do something for you in return. Now, I see your a conscientious farmer and the welfare of your animals is important to you. Let me talk to them, maybe I can found out if there's anything they're unhappy about."
The farmer is sceptical about this, but doesn't wish to offend his guest -- and a holy man at that -- so he says all the right things and the holy man goes off. A short while later he returns, and the farmer asks him if he had learned anything.
"On the whole your animals are vert happy," says our holy man, "but there were one or two things. Your cows, for instance, mentioned that your hands are itchy when you milk them."
The farmer is incredulous. "That's amazing! Yes, the mornings have been a bit cold and I've been wearing woolen gloves. But if it's making the cows unhappy, then I'll stop wearing them."
"I'm sure they'll be very happy. Next I talked to your horse. Apparently its bit has started hurting."
"I bought a new bit a few weeks ago -- that must be what's causing the pain! I'll go back to using the old one. This is wonderful stuff, thanks! So what else did you find out?"
"Well, then I went to talk to your sheep--"
"No, you shouldn't believe them!" the farmer interrupts. "They're notorious liars, every single one!"