A Baker's Dozen

How come?

Browsing the Internet, you will find a lot of nonsensical explanations.
This is the true story!*

In the Middle Ages bakers and millers were natural enemies.
Bakers used to buy corn directly from farmers.
The bakers took it to the millers to be ground.
And they always found the eventual weights of corn milled by the millers to be a little short.

Millers always found the bakers lacking in arithmetical skills.
Or so they said.

Now, in order to explain the phrase 'a baker's dozen', we have two feasible possibilities.
1) Bakers were indeed stupid and could not count.
And so, they added an 'extra one' to the dozen in order to avoid being exposed as stupid or unreliable.
2) Bakers were smarter than millers or anyone else and added an 'extra one' to their dozens for goodwill and marketing purposes.

I think that anyone gifted enough to bake 'lovely, fresh-smelling bread in the god-early morning is clever enough to count to twelve, or even thirteen.
And yes, I think that mills, beautiful nature-driven and primal machines that they are, are some sort of 'black boxes'. Yes, you put something in, and no, you do not know what is coming out.

My conclusion: long live the bakers: those hard-working, pleasure-creating, comfort-giving workers providing us with freshly-baked, yummy-smelling and crusty bread!

* Based on extensive reading. If you wish to read more extensively about bakers and millers and many more people: remember to read Geoffrey Chaucer.
And yes, he deserves to be read. (http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext00/cbtls12.txt)

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