Curio Shop

Curio Shop

A man walked into a curio shop in Galveston Texas.

Looking around at the exotica, he noticed a very
life-like, life-size bronze statue of a rat.
It had no price tag, but it looked so striking
that he decided he must have it.

He took it to the owner and asked "How much is
the bronze rat?"

"Twelve dollars for the rat, a hundred dollars
if you bring it back,"
said the owner.

The man gave the shop owner twelve dollars.
"I'll take the rat; And I won't be bringing it back."

As he walked down the street carrying the bronze
rat, he noticed that a few real rats had crawled
out of alleys and sewers, and began following
him down the street.

This was a bit disconcerting, so he began to walk a
little bit faster. Within a couple of blocks,
the group of rats behind him grew to over a hundred,
and they began squealing.

He started to trot towards the Harbor. He took a
nervous look around and saw that the rats numbered in
the thousands, maybe in the millions, and they were
all squealing and coming towards him faster and
faster.

Terrified, he ran to the edge of the water and
threw the bronze rat as far out into the Harbor as he
could. Amazingly, the millions of rats all jumped
into the water after it, and were drowned.

The man walked back to the curio shop.
"Aha," said the owner, "You're bringing it back!"

"Actually no," said the man. "I came back to see
how much you want for that little bronze Mexican
over there".