A man walked into an antique store, and began to look around. Suddenly, he spied a large brass rat in the corner. He fell in love with it, and so he brought it up to the cashier.
“The rat, eh?” said the wizened old proprietor.
“That’s right. How much?” replied the customer.
“Well, five dollars for the rat…” the old man paused, “but 200 dollars for the story,” he answered with a grin.
“I’ll just take the rat… without the story,” laughed the patron.
After paying the old man $5.00, he left the store with his precious brass rat tucked under his arm.
Soon he began to hear a scurrying and squeaking noise behind him. When he looked back, he noticed that a few rats were following him. After he had walked a few more blocks, the number of rats behind him increased. This continued, until there were virtually millions of rats behind him.
The man panicked, ran to a pier overlooking the sea, and threw the brass rat in. All of the rats plunged in after it, and met their watery deaths.
Freaked out and nearly breathless, the man ran back to the antique store.
The old store owner was chuckling to himself. “So now do you want the story?”
“No,” said the man, “but have you got any brass lawyers?”
