Gambling on the meaning of nothing: how much do we really understand one another, even as friends?

Minaccio, a witty man and a gambler, once lost his cash and his coat, too, playing at dice (he was truly poor), and sat weeping at the doorway of the tavern. A friend saw him distraught and in tears. “What is going on with you?” the friend asks. “Nothing,” Minaccio responds. “Then why are you crying, if there is nothing?” the friend continues. “But that’s exactly why,” Minaccio says, “for there is nothing.” Thus one of them thinks there is nothing to cry over, and the other cries because he has nothing left after the game.

Poggio Bracciolini, Clever Stories, ca. 1450