Some people underestimate themselves. We take Antonio Tiberi, a young and talented Italian cyclist who lives in San Marino for sentimental reasons (he loves the slimness of their tax records). After knocking out a passing cat with his air rifle, he said he never, ever imagined that a bullet could cause such havoc.
With this insulting his intelligence, because a boy who at twenty is already smart enough to move to San Marino to pay less taxes cannot suddenly become so obtuse as to ignore that a rifle does not shoot rose petals.
He could have told that the shot had missed. Instead he admitted that he wanted to aim at the cat to test the efficiency of the weapon, but without any intention of harming him. He evidently thought he was just giving him a little tickle or at most a skin irritation.
What punishment would you inflict on him, apart from the 4,000 euro fine, pennies for him?
I fully espouse the “bad” line of the San Marino Minister of Tourism, who intends to have the gunslinger removed from his residence, so as to return him to the Italian tax authorities: after all, it is a way to hit Tiberi in his dearest affections.
I have one last curiosity. Destiny wanted the cat killed to be that of the minister. Would he have proved equally inflexible if it had been a fellow citizen’s cat?
Il Caffè di Gramellini awaits you here, from Tuesday to Saturday. Those who subscribe to Corriere also have access to «PrimaOra», the newsletter that allows you to start the day in the best possible way. Those who have not yet subscribed can find ways to do so here and have access to all the site’s contents, all the newsletters and podcasts, and the newspaper’s historical archive.
