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Both stories are fake. They are urban legends.

An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising fallacious claims or stories circulated as true, especially as having happened to a “friend of a friend” or a family member, often with horrifying, humorous, or cautionary elements.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legends_and_myths

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This version has Nelson Mandela and Professor Peters.
Received via WhatsApp.

When Nelson Mandela was studying law at the University, a white professor, whose last name was Peters, disliked him intensely.

One day, Mr. Peters was having lunch at the dining room when Mandela came along with his trays and sat next to the professor. The professor said, “Mr Mandela, you do not understand, a pig and a bird do not sit together to eat”. Mandela looked at him as a parent would a rude child & calmly replied, “You do not worry professor. I’ll fly away,” and he went and sat at another table.

Professor Peters, reddened with rage, decided to take revenge.

The next day in class he posed the following question: “Mr. Mandela, if you were walking down the street and found a package, and within was a bag of wisdom and another bag with money, which one would you take ?” Without hesitating, Mandela responded, “The one with the money, of course.” Professor Peters , smiling sarcastically said, “I, in your place, would have taken the wisdom.” Nelson Mandela shrugged & responded, “Each one takes what he doesn’t have.”

Professor Peters, by this time was about to throw a fit, seething with fury. So great was his anger that he wrote on Nelson Mandela’s exam sheet the word *”IDIOT”and gave it to the future struggle icon. Mandela took the exam sheet and sat down at his desk trying very hard to remain calm while he contemplated his next move.

A few minutes later, Nelson Mandela got up, walked up to the professor and told him in a dignified polite tone, “Mr. Peters, you signed your name on the sheet, but you forgot to give me my grade.” Don’t mess with intelligent people….pass it on to your intellectual friends….

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This is the Mahatma Gandhi versus Professor Peters version.

When Gandhi was studying law at the University College of London, there was a professor, whose last name was Peters, who felt animosity for Gandhi, and because Gandhi never lowered his head towards him, their “arguments” were very common.

One day, Mr. Peters was having lunch at the dining room of the University and Gandhi came along with his tray and sat next to the professor. The professor, in his arrogance, said, “Mr Gandhi: you do not understand… a pig and a bird do not sit together to eat,” to which Gandhi replies, “You do not worry professor, I’ll fly away, ” and he went and sat at another table.

Mr. Peters, green of rage, decides to take revenge on the next test, but Gandhi responds brilliantly to all questions. Then, Mr. Peters asked him the following question, “Mr Gandhi, if you are walking down the street and find a package, and within it there is a bag of wisdom and another bag with a lot of money; which one will you take?”

Without hesitating, Gandhi responded, “the one with the money, of course.”

Mr. Peters, smiling, said, “I, in your place, would have taken the wisdom, don’t you think?”

“Each one takes what one doesn’t have,” responded Gandhi indifferently.

Mr. Peters, already hysteric, writes on the exam sheet the word “idiot” and gives it to Gandhi. Gandhi takes the exam sheet and sits down. A few minutes later, Gandhi goes to the professor and says, “Mr. Peters, you signed the sheet, but you did not give me the grade.”

https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/20313/did-gandhi-trump-professor-peters-in-a-number-of-interactions

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There is no known record of him studying under any Professor Peters at all, much less an exam paper with the word “idiot” scrawled on it. Thus another urban legend is busted!

My Experiment with Truth by Swapnajit Mitra October 12, 2014

https://indiacurrents.com/my-experiment-with-truth/

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Fact Check : Gandhi vs. Professor Peters On Wisdom + Money

https://www.techarp.com/articles/gandhi-professor-peters-fact-check/

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