Wednesday, May 31, 2006

The dead donkey

Michael bought a donkey from an old farmer for £100. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day, but when he drove up he said, "Sorry son, bad news...the donkey is on my truck, but he's dead." Michael replied, "OK, just give me my money back." The farmer said, "I can't do that. I've already spent it."

Michael told him to unload the donkey anyway. When the farmer asked what he intended to do with it, Michael replied, "I'm going to raffle him off." The farmer exclaimed, "But you can't raffle a dead donkey!" But Michael, with a big smile on his face, said "Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody that he's dead."

A month later the farmer saw him again and asked, "What happened with that dead donkey?" Michael told him, "I raffled it off. I sold 500 tickets at £2 each and made a huge profit" Totally amazed, the farmer asked, "Didn't anyone complain that you'd defrauded them with a dead donkey?" Michael replied, "The only guy who found out the donkey was dead was the raffle winner when he came to claim his prize. So I gave him his £2 back plus £200 extra, which is double the going value of a donkey, so he thought I was a great guy."

Michael grew up and eventually became Minister of Finance, and no matter how many times he lied or how much money he stole from New Zealand voters, as long as he gave them back some of the stolen money, most of them thought he was a great guy.

Hat tip Adam Smith

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And don't forget:
a) There was no choice in whether or not you could buy a raffle ticket from him - you either bought one from him, or discovered that it's a dangerous world out there and people could get hurt. After which you *still* had to buy one.
b) Michael would rifle through your wallet and pocket first and vary the price of the ticket depending on how much he found there.
c) When some people got wind of the fact that the donkey was dead before the draw and complained, Michael simply laughed at them for being stupid and said that he couldn't afford to reduce the ticket price because then he'd have to raffle a dead cat instead, and you have only his careful planning to thank for the fact that you have any chance of winning anything at all. Sheesh - bloody ungrateful lot.

Anonymous said...

And don't forget:
a) There was no choice in whether or not you could buy a raffle ticket from him - you either bought one from him, or discovered that it's a dangerous world out there and people could get hurt. After which you *still* had to buy one.
b) Michael would rifle through your wallet and pocket first and vary the price of the ticket depending on how much he found there.
c) When some people got wind of the fact that the donkey was dead before the draw and complained, Michael simply laughed at them for being stupid and said that he couldn't afford to reduce the ticket price because then he'd have to raffle a dead cat instead, and you have only his careful planning to thank for the fact that you have any chance of winning anything at all. Sheesh - bloody ungrateful lot.

Rick said...

That's good for a reblogging.

:: yoink ::

Anonymous said...

I have no idea why that posted twice. I only did it once. *shrug*

KG said...

caskman: posted twice so that Labour supporters would get it?

Anonymous said...

Oh thats great! Im nicking it and mailing it far and wide! ;-)