| An American
is visiting Hong Kong. He enters a small curio shop and starts to browse.
After about 15 minutes his a golden object catches his eye. It is a small,
golden statue of a rat. Intrigued, the man takes the statue to the shop's
proprietor and asks, "How much for the rat?" The old, wizened oriental replies, "25 dollars for statue. 1000 dollars for story of statue." The American snorts and hands over $25, and walks out of the door with statue in hand. When he reaches the end of the block he hears faint squealing and scratching sounds behind him. He turns and sees several rats on the sidewalk behind him. He thinks nothing of it and continues walking. At the end of the next block he hears more noise behind him. He looks again and there are about 50 rats following him. He picks up his step and by the time he reaches the end of the next block he looks and there are hundreds of rats following him. He starts walking at a fast pace, but at the end of the next block he looks in horror to find thousands of rats. Now he starts running. He is out of luck. He has reached the water's edge and he sees tens of thousands of rats following him. He stares at the statue and then dashes down the pier in panic and terror. At the end of the pier he stops and without thinking throws the statue as far into the harbor as he can. To his surprise all the rats follow the statue into the water and drown. His heart racing and sweat pouring down his face, the American walks back to the curio shop. He stops before the door, composes himself, and then enters. Upon hearing his door's bell the little, wizened proprietor says, "Ah. You return for story." The American says, "No. You have any little, golden statues of lawyers?" |
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