Once upon a time, a French nobleman decided he wanted to get married. There were three peasant girls in the village who appealed to him, but he couldn't choose between them. He thought about the dilemma for a while, and eventually came up with the bright idea of having them all over for dinner one night so that he could compare them all at the same time.
He had his servants prepare a fabulous feast with many courses, including, of course, one of cheese. One girl carefully cut off all the croûtes (crust, or the rind/mold/other stuff around the outside of some cheeses) of her cheese, making sure not to leave a bit of it. The next girl ate all of the cheese given to her, croûtes and all. The final girl cut off some but did not worry herself with how much was left.
At the end of the meal, the nobleman declared he had chosen the final girl. The first one, he said, was wasteful and would use up all of his money. The second was greedy. But the last one comported herself as a respectable lady, not being overly concerned with the cheese, but rather with the meal as a whole.
I asked Catherine how people know what croûtes to cut off and which to eat. Apparently it's a matter of taste a lot of the time, but if the croûtes are particularly hard people generally cut them off.
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