One day, a man walked into the produce section of his local supermarket and asked to buy half a head of lettuce. The boy working in that department told him that they only sold whole heads of lettuce. The man was insistent that the boy asks his manager about the matter.

Walking into the back room, the boy said to his manager, "Some jerk but there wants to buy only half a head of lettuce." As he finished his sentence, he turned to find the man standing right behind him, so he added, "and this gentleman wants to buy the other half."

Though I read it in "jokes" category in the net, I was thinking about the boy's extraordinary presence of mind to save himself in that situation or he would have lost his job.

What exactly do we mean when we say that one should have a presence of mind?

When we meet up with a crisis or an emergency how many of us act fast enough to save ourselves from it? There may be a number of people at that time but only one in the group may act fast to take immediate action. One should possess a calm state of mind to think clearly and effectively during these emergency situations.

Presence of mind is required not only in emergencies, but also to prove our intelligence or mastery over others. In India, many years ago, The court jesters of Emperor Krishnadevaraya and Akbar