He was asking the question in the same way that children tell the teacher about a class-mate's misbehavior in order to distract attention from their own misdeeds. Just so it makes us feel better about the problems and failures of our own lives to gossip about how badly things are going in our neighbor's family. Envy is on that list of classic sins and it certainly pervades our lives. One of the main thrusts of advertising is to lead us to envy those who have the glittering possessions shown.
Envy nibbles away at our families and infects all of our relationships.
As we move into the second week of Lent are we able to discipline ourselves so that we can work on our own spiritual goals without needing to measure ourselves against the standards and accomplishments of the world around us. When one child starts tattling on another, an experienced teacher will often look quickly to the tattler's status because often when Joey is telling that Bill is eating his snack early, there will be crumbs all over Joey's face. For sure, the teacher is not going to be fooled into chasing down the details of this story. While it would be wonderful to know what Jesus' voice sounded like, to have a scratchy recording like those old ones of Caruso. But we hear his style when he responds to the would be disciples who ask how to have life eternal and to would be betrayers who ask how to treat the woman taken in adultery.