A tourist walks into a curio shop in San Francisco. Looking around at the exotic things, he notices a very lifelike, life-sized bronze statue of a rat. It has no price tag, but is so striking he decides he must have it. He takes it to the owner and asks: “How much for the bronze rat?” “$12.00 for the rat, $100.00 for the story,” said the owner.

The tourist gave the man $12.00. “I’ll just take the rat. You can keep the story.” As he walked down the street carrying the bronze rat, he noticed that a few real rats had crawled out of the alleys and sewers and had begun to follow him down the street. This was disconcerting and he began to walk faster. But within a couple of blocks the herd of rats behind him had grown to hundreds, and they began squealing.

He began to trot toward the Bay, looking around to see that the rats now numbered MILLIONS, and were squealing and coming towards him faster and faster. Concerned, even scared, he ran to the edge of the Bay and threw the bronze rat as far out into the Bay as he could.

Amazingly the millions of rats all jumped into the Bay and were all drowned!

The man hurried back to the curio shop. “Ah ha,” said the owner. “You have come back for the story?”

“No,” said the man, “I came back to see if you had a bronze Republican.”

— Posted by Menelek