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?"

The Shopkeeper grinned and nodded. Not believing
what a bargain he'd got, the man quickly paid 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 shopkeeper held out his hand for the fifty
dollars. The customer looked confused for a
second, then said.
"Hell no! I wanna know if you've got a statue of
a lawyer!"