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Paul Foster wrote:
> Ok, John didn't bite, what joke?
Old Polish folktale, actually:
Seems this thief was caught redhanded. He was brought in front of the
king and the king sentenced him to death. The thief, pleading for mercy,
claimed that he could teach horses to sing, and that further, if the
king would spare him he would teach the king's favorite horse. But it
would take a long time, perhaps as much as a year.
Dubious, the king agreed to allow it, but swore that if the thief
failed, his death would be more painful than most.
So every day there would be the thief in the courtyard of the stable,
under heavy guard, assidiously singing to the horse, using a metronome
to stamp out a beat, massaging the horse's neck and vocal cords, playing
scales on the flute, etc. all day long. This amused the guards to no
end.
Finally, some weeks later, one asked the thief, "why do you bother?
everyone knows that no horse has ever sung and you look so very
foolish."
The thief replied: "well, a lot can happen in a year...
The horse may die. Surely the king can't expect me to teach a dead
horse.
The King may die. His sucessor may show mercy.
Heck, I may die of natural causes. Beats being put to death right
away...
and maybe, just maybe... the horse will learn to sing."
--
Larry Pieniazek http://my.voyager.net/lar
FDIC Know your Customer is wounded, thanks to you, but not dead...
See http://www.defendyourprivacy.com for details
For me: No voyager e-mail please. All snail-mail to Ada, please.
- Posting Binaries to RTL causes flamage... Don't do it, please.
- Stick to the facts when posting about others, please.
- This is a family newsgroup, thanks.
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