Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

Your question is quite simple. Hence, I'm going to ask my chauffeur to respond

Not Max Planck — an old folk joke Anonymous Jewish folk anecdote · earliest version located by Quote Investigator: 1926
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

Planck never said it, and nothing suggests the lecture swap ever happened. Quote Investigator ↗ traces the joke to Jewish folklore. Its earliest match is Jacob Richman’s Laughs from Jewish Lore (1926), where the hero is Rabbi Ezekiel Landau of Prague. Planck took the starring role in later retellings, such as Charlie Munger’s 2003 talk, and Munger called the story apocryphal ↗ as he told it.

Last verified 2 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“Your question is quite simple. Hence, I'm going to ask my chauffeur to respond” Not Max Planck. An anonymous Jewish folk joke, earliest located in Jacob Richman’s Laughs from Jewish Lore (1926). Charlie Munger told a Planck version in 2003 and called it apocryphal. — Quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Max Planck. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the themes of humility, wisdom and simplicity. Theme: "Your question is quite simple. Hence, I'm going to ask my chauffeur to respond". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Your question is quite simple. Hence, I'm going to ask my chauffeur to respond". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The paper trail

Earliest version located
Laughs from Jewish Lore
Compiler & date
Jacob Richman · Funk & Wagnalls, New York, 1926
Hero in that version
Rabbi Ezekiel Landau of Prague (not a scientist)
Planck version
Charlie Munger, UC Santa Barbara lecture, October 3, 2003 (published in Poor Charlie’s Almanack)

By the way, there’s a famous story about Max Planck that is apocryphal: After he won his prize, he was invited to lecture everywhere, and he had this chauffeur who drove him around to give public lectures all through Germany. And the chauffeur memorized the lecture, so one day he said, “Gee, Professor Planck, why don’t you let me try it by switching places?” So he got up and gave the lecture. At the end of it, some physicist stood up and posed a question of extreme difficulty. But the chauffeur was up to it. “Well,” he said, “I’m surprised that a citizen of an advanced city like Munich is asking so elementary a question, so I’m going to ask my chauffeur to respond.” Charlie Munger, 2003

This is Munger’s telling from his 2003 UC Santa Barbara lecture, as printed in Poor Charlie’s Almanack ↗. Even here, the man telling the Planck version calls it apocryphal. The popular line “Your question is quite simple. Hence, I’m going to ask my chauffeur to respond” is the heading of Quote Investigator’s article. It is the researcher’s summary, and no historical source uses those exact words.

Quote Investigator: the chauffeur anecdote, traced from 1926

How we verified this

  • 1926 — Jacob Richman’s Laughs from Jewish Lore ↗ prints “Even His Driver Was a Scholar.” Rabbi Ezekiel Landau trades places with his driver. When the fake rabbi gets a hard question, he says: “You have asked me a very, very silly question. Even my driver can answer that.”
  • 1948–1998 — The hero keeps changing, as Quote Investigator’s chronology ↗ shows: the Preacher of Dubno (1948), an unnamed “well-known atomic scientist” (1958), Albert Einstein (Reader’s Digest, January 1978), Wernher von Braun (1987) and a bishop-theologian (1998).
  • 2003 — Charlie Munger tells the story about Max Planck in a UC Santa Barbara lecture and calls it “apocryphal.” He retold it at USC’s law school commencement on May 13, 2007. Both talks are in Poor Charlie’s Almanack ↗.
  • 2023 — Quote Investigator ↗ concludes that the anecdote “originated within Jewish folklore,” that a version was circulating by 1926, and that the creator of the original tale is unknown.

No identifiable work contains the popular wording. It matches the heading of Quote Investigator’s 2023 article, so no public-domain status is claimed. Munger’s own telling appears in Poor Charlie’s Almanack, a modern book that is still in copyright. The 1926 Richman joke book uses different words and was published before 1931.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Who it gets pinned on

This is a joke with an interchangeable star. Whoever is most famous for a hard subject gets the lead role, and Planck is just one of them.

Max Planck Never said it

Planck appears in Charlie Munger’s retelling, set in Munich, and Munger himself called it apocryphal ↗. The story does not appear on Planck’s Wikiquote page ↗.

Albert Einstein Folk joke

Reader’s Digest ran an Einstein version in January 1978, crediting a West Virginia newspaper columnist, according to Quote Investigator ↗. Earlier printed versions named a rabbi or an unnamed scientist.

Wernher von Braun Folk joke

King Duncan’s Mule Eggs and Topknots (1987) cast the rocket scientist as the lecturer, as Quote Investigator ↗ documents.

Charlie Munger Teller, not creator

Munger told the Planck version, in 2003 and 2007, but he presented it as an apocryphal “famous story.” Quote Investigator’s chronology has versions going back to 1926, decades before his talks (QI ↗).

The tale is anonymous Jewish folklore. Its earliest located version, from 1926, stars Rabbi Ezekiel Landau of Prague and his driver, and the scientists came later (Quote Investigator ↗).

Context

Why the Planck version stuck

The Planck version spread because of what Munger built on it. In his 2007 USC commencement address he split knowledge into two kinds. “Planck knowledge” belongs to people who have paid their dues and really understand a subject. “Chauffeur knowledge” belongs to people who have “learned to prattle the talk” (Poor Charlie’s Almanack ↗). His fans repeated the parable, and Planck’s name went with it.

The joke itself is much older than the parable. In the 1926 version, the sharp-tongued stand-in is a rabbi’s driver, not a physicist’s chauffeur. The same punchline later passed through Einstein, von Braun and others before it reached Planck (Quote Investigator ↗).

Chauffeur knowledge masquerading as real knowledge. — Charlie Munger, 2007

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Humility Wisdom Simplicity

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Anecdote Origin: the chauffeur who answered for the lecturerquoteinvestigator.com

The full chronology from 1926 to 2003, with the conclusion that the tale is Jewish folklore and its creator is unknown.
Quote Investigator: Max Planck tagquoteinvestigator.com

QI's other investigations of lines pinned on Planck, including this one.
Laughs from Jewish Lore (1926), pages 30–31archive.org

Scan of Jacob Richman's book with the earliest version QI located, starring Rabbi Ezekiel Landau.
Poor Charlie's Almanack (online edition)stripe.press

Munger's 2003 UCSB and 2007 USC talks, where he tells the Planck version and calls it apocryphal.
Max Planck on Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Planck's sourced quotations. The chauffeur story is not among them.

The man who made it famous — but didn’t write it

The investor who kept telling the Planck version

Charlie Munger

1924–2023 · Investor, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway

Charlie Munger was Warren Buffett’s longtime partner and vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. He told the chauffeur story about Max Planck in a 2003 talk at UC Santa Barbara and again at USC’s law school commencement in 2007, saying he “frequently” told it. Both times he called it apocryphal. He used it as a parable, not as history: it set real “Planck knowledge” against borrowed “chauffeur knowledge.”

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented version

Earliest version located by Quote Investigator: Jacob Richman, “Even His Driver Was a Scholar,” in Laughs from Jewish Lore (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1926), 30–31. Planck version: Charles T. Munger, “Academic Economics: Strengths and Faults after Considering Interdisciplinary Needs,” Herb Kay Undergraduate Lecture, University of California, Santa Barbara, October 3, 2003, in Poor Charlie’s Almanack, ed. Peter D. Kaufman.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Your question is quite simple. Hence, I'm going to ask my chauffeur to respond’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/your-question-is-quite-simple-hence-im-going-to-ask-my/

Something wrong on this page?

Tell us what’s off. A link helps but isn’t required — “this is the wrong person” is a useful report on its own. Nothing here changes the page directly; it goes to our review queue and a human checks it.

Only used to tell you if we act on your report. We never sell or share it.

Copied