Shades of grey

Something that's bugging me right now:

Do you remember at primary school when people would want to borrow your pencil-sharpener, they'd ask 'Does it break pencils?' meaning, does it break the point off over and over? I believed (and still do) that this phenomenon is to do with the pencil, not the sharpener - but I have no proof! And why do kids believe in the 'bad pencil-sharpener'?

Or is it just me?