A Typical Kate Story

This has been playing on my mind a lot lately and thought I would give you a glimpse into pre-adolescent Kate's life.
I had to have been about twelve, maybe a little older, maybe a little younger. My family and I were eating at our favorite Tex Mex restaurant, something that had become more and more of a treat in those days. As we ate, I overheard a conversation from the table behind us. A man and woman, obviously a couple, sat at one side of the table, while another man, probably not well-known to the couple, sat at the other. I don't remember the very beginning of this conversation, but the first thing I can remember the lone man say was "I'm the smartest man in the world." This made my eyebrows raise, and I listened closer.
"Here, I'll show you: What walks on four legs at the beginning of its life, on two legs in the middle, and on three at the end of its life?" I had to roll my eyes at this one. Not only was he using one of the most well-known, oldest riddles in the history of the world, published thousands of years ago in Oedipus Rex, but he had TOLD IT INCORRECTLY! And this man was using that as an example of his supreme mental prowess? I thought not. I decided to have a little fun with him. I turned around and said "Man. He crawls on all fours, then he walks on two legs, and then he uses a cane." The man was a little baffled and a lot affronted that some strange young girl (who looked younger than she was) had interrupted him and solved his riddle so flippantly. The lady and her hubby were also a little shocked. The lady covered by saying "oh, you probably heard that somewhere." And I remember thinking, so did he!
Then I think he asked me another riddle, which was in my riddle book for children, and I answered it. Then I asked him to put ten horses in nine pens without any of them sharing a stall. He gave up, and I drew nine pens, and wrote t-e-n-h-o-r-s-e-s in it. "oh, cute" was his dramatically pejorative reply.
Then he said something about being smart and I said that my parents were the smartest people in the world. He rolled his eyes at that. I believe I returned to my dinner.
I still cannot get over the audacity. A man openly claims his supreme intellect and then ventures to prove it by TELLING A RIDDLE that he had READ SOMEWHERE ELSE???
For one thing, making up a riddle that is clever and difficult to solve shows some mental prowess, in fact I believe it shows a lot in the manner of critical thinking, but what I have decided is the moral of this story is:
Telling a riddle that is as old as time is not evidence of a strong mind but of a strong memory.
and the secondary moral is:
If you are going to disregard the first moral and use an old riddle to prove your prowess, by gum, tell it the right way! (and beware nosy, precocious little girls. They'll humble you every time.)