Hmm. I have heard the parable with a different setup, and the opposite lesson. In the version I know (from multiple sources), the man knows he dropped his keys near his car, but is looking under the lamppost because the light is better here. The lesson is that drunk people are dumb and you should look where you expect the answer is, not where it’s easy to look. There is no implication that he might be cleverly looking where the keys might be and he’s more likely to see them quickly.
I don’t think either version of the parable has much to teach us, beyond “don’t be a drunk”.
Yes, that is the original version of the parable; gworley is playing on the original here and suggesting that maybe it misses something important about why someone might do something as apparently fruitless as looking for his keys where the light is rather than where he dropped them.
Hmm. I have heard the parable with a different setup, and the opposite lesson. In the version I know (from multiple sources), the man knows he dropped his keys near his car, but is looking under the lamppost because the light is better here. The lesson is that drunk people are dumb and you should look where you expect the answer is, not where it’s easy to look. There is no implication that he might be cleverly looking where the keys might be and he’s more likely to see them quickly.
I don’t think either version of the parable has much to teach us, beyond “don’t be a drunk”.
Yes, that is the original version of the parable; gworley is playing on the original here and suggesting that maybe it misses something important about why someone might do something as apparently fruitless as looking for his keys where the light is rather than where he dropped them.