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The stories told of Diogenes illustrate the logical consistency of his character. He inured himself to the weather by living in a clay wine jar[5][21] belonging to the temple of Cybele.[22] He destroyed the single wooden bowl he possessed on seeing a peasant boy drink from the hollow of his hands. He then exclaimed: "Fool that I am, to have been carrying superfluous baggage all this time!"[23][24] It was contrary to Athenian customs to eat within the marketplace, and still he would eat there, for, as he explained when rebuked, it was during the time he was in the marketplace that he felt hungry. He used to stroll about in full daylight with a lamp; when asked what he was doing, he would answer, "I am looking for a man."[25] (Modern sources often say that Diogenes was looking for an "honest man", but in ancient sources he is simply "looking for a man" – "ἄνθρωπον ζητῶ".[26] In his view, the unreasoning behavior of the people around him meant that they did not qualify as men.) Diogenes looked for a man but reputedly found nothing but rascals and scoundrels.[27]
According to Diogenes Laërtius, when Plato gave the tongue-in-cheek[28] definition of man as "featherless bipeds," Diogenes plucked a chicken and brought it into Plato's Academy, saying, "Behold! I've brought you a man," and so the Academy added "with broad flat nails" to the definition.[29] Diogenes Laërtius also relates a number of more bawdy tales whereby Diogenes would spit, urinate on people, break wind, and masturbate in public.[30]
