As a kid, every time I tried to hoodwink my father into bogus school supplies expenses he would recite this joke about a medieval student sending a letter to his uneducated father. After some platitudes similar to the ones in the article, the punchline was more or less like this (loses a bit in translation): "Three books I have to buy: Marcus, Tullius and Cicero. At three royals each, nine royals I need".

The response was: "Marcus Tullius Cicero is one book. Here I send five royals, so you can send back two".