As a man was eating at a bistro table for two with his lover on the other side, a black olive jumped off his plate and onto the cobblestones, then started to roll down the hill. It rolled and rolled all the way to the bottom. The man watched it and I saw as he considered getting up from the table to chase the olive down the hill. He looked at the rolling olive with an expression that said he knew he had an obligation to not litter the streets with olives.

Perhaps he would save someone from stepping on it and ruining their shoe or squashing it and making the streets seem slightly unpleasant for everyone else walking by. There are plenty of reasons why there can’t be olives all over the cobblestone sidewalk. But even as he considered all this, he had to also consider that he was at a meal with his lover and he had his napkin already on his lap. And it would have created a scene for him to get up and run down the hill, chasing the olive. So he left it and let it roll and looked back down on his plate and continued to eat.