Stimulus Generalization:

Humour made it simple.

Telling the bees.

“And he said if a man owned a beehive and that man died, the bees must be told about it before sun-up next morning, or else the bees would all weaken down and quit work and die. Jim said bees wouldn't sting idiots; but I didn't believe that, because I had tried them lots of times myself, and they wouldn't sting me.”

Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn.

Much more here.