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THE
STATUE & THE STORY
A man was looking around a small gift shop when he came across
an amazingly ugly statue of a rat. As he was staring at this
statue, the shopkeeper came up to him and began to speak.
"Sir, I couldn't help but notice your interest in the
statue. It's only five dollars, sir, but the story behind it will
cost you fifty."
The man turned back around and looked in shock. "Let me get
this straight. If I buy the statue and the story behind it, I'll
be paying fifty-five dollars. But if I can bear to live without
the story, I'll only pay five? Sold!" He paid the merchant
and walked out of the store.
A few moments later, he noticed that a lone rat was following
him. He shrugged, and ignored the rodent, hoping it would leave.
When he looked back again, some five minutes later, he saw that
the number of rodents had grown to maybe fifty rats. A little
nervous, he turned back to his path and continued walking. When
he looked around the third time, he saw thousands of rats
following him.
Horribly frightened, the man rushed to a dock overlooking the
ocean and threw the statue as far out to sea as he possibly
could. The rats followed the statue, sinking into the waves like
stones.
The man then rushed back to the shop, elated, panicked, and still
in shock. When he burst through the door, the shopkeeper gave a
little chuckle. He had a smug grin on his face as he said,
"I expect you've come back to buy the story." The
merchant held out his hand for the fifty dollars.
The customer looked confused for a second, then realized.
"Hell no! I wanna know if you've got a statue of a lawyer
here!"
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