"The Refund"

[adityavpratap]

Hi,
When I was a student, I had a lesson "The Refund" in my English Reader. It was about a good-for-nothing bumpkin who goes back to his school asking for a refund of the tuition fee he had to pay when he was a student there, the reason being his belief that the education that was imparted there had made him an utterly useless fellow. The principal of the school asks him to appear for a small test and if he fails in this test, his tuition fee would be refunded. Now the aim of the student is to flunk the test and that of his teachers is to see that at no cost he flunks, lest they have to refund the tuition fee.
What follows is absolute anarchy. A total laugh riot.
Now, my problem is that I don't remember the author of this masterpiece.
Has anybody read this? Is it available anywhere on the net?
I would be grateful to anyone who can give me more information about this.
With regards,
Aditya Pratap V.

[Tdol]

Sadly, I've never come across this, and Google couldn't help. I wish I knew because it sounds excellent.

[adityavpratap]

It is good, allright.

[twostep]

Can you inquire at your school about a specific year's curriculum?

[adityavpratap]

Good idea. I will give it a try.

[Marylin]

Originally Posted by adityavpratap

Good idea. I will give it a try.

Is that what you were looking for?
http://chennaicentral.blogspot.com/2...usings-on.html

The guys name is Fritz Karinsky and i couldn't find too much on him anywhere. Maybe you can.

[adityavpratap]

That is the one I was talking about. You have hit the bull's eye. Thanks a bunch friend. Where did you get the link? At least now I know the name of the author. It is a major progress.

[Tdol]

The synopsis had me chuckling. I'll look as well. If you find it, please let me know.

27 apricots

[anilMenon]

"The Refund" is indeed a great story. It was written by the Hungarian author, Frigyes Karinthy. Also, in his short story 'Chains' Frigyes introduced the idea that any two people are separated by 'six degrees of separation.' happy reading.

[englishstudent]

Originally Posted by anilMenon

"The Refund" is indeed a great story. It was written by the Hungarian author, Frigyes Karinthy. Also, in his short story 'Chains' Frigyes introduced the idea that any two people are separated by 'six degrees of separation.' happy reading.

Wow, that is very interesting. According the website on
Karinthy, he died in 1938. That means "Chains"
was written prior to that. But the term "six degrees
of separation" apparently originated (at least in the US)
in 1967 after an experiment by psychologist Stanley Milgram.
I wonder if Milgram got the idea for his experiment
from "Chains". Recently, I read that there is a controversy
about the concept of "six degrees of separation" but
I don't have the source with me. But this may do
to get an idea about the controversy -
Scientists Divided on 'Six Degrees of Separation'