Was Einstein a big tipper?

Jonah Mandel reports at Yahoo News,

Jerusalem (AFP) - A note that Albert Einstein gave to a courier in Tokyo briefly describing his theory on happy living sold at auction in Jerusalem on Tuesday for $1.56 million (1.33 million euros), the auction house said.

The winning bid for the note far exceeded the pre-auction estimate of between $5,000 and $8,000, according to the website of Winner's auction house.

"It was an all-time record for an auction of a document in Israel," Winner's spokesman Meni Chadad told AFP.

The buyer was a European who wished to remain anonymous, he said.

The note, on Imperial Hotel Tokyo stationery, says in German that "a quiet and modest life brings more joy than a pursuit of success bound with constant unrest."

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