Subject: Dead Mule
From: Unicorn (unicorn@indenial.com)
Date: Sat May 27 2000 - 02:10:16 EDT
"Dead Mule"
In the rural south, occasionally you will find an
older gentleman who still uses a mule to make
a garden. Until he was 72, my father used one
and contended that if you knew what you were
doing with a good mule, you never needed a
hoe for the grass.
Well, there was this old man who had been
using a mule for years and it finally died on
him. Seeing as he really needed a large
garden to hold down food costs, he made a
trip to see the mule dealer. Admittedly, they
are rare, but they still exist. At the dealer's
place he was surprised at how much prices
for mules had increased in the last 20 years.
(Mules live a long time).
After examinations of the available stock and
the leanness of his wallet (he only had $125),
he concluded he would have to settle for a
mule almost as old as himself. After
extensive haggling with the dealer, they
settled on a price, the old man made
arrangements to return the next day with a
horse trailer to pick up his purchase, and the
dealer agreed to keep it overnight for him.
Early the next day, the old man returned to
be faced with some bad news. "Jim," said
the mule dealer, "that old mule died last
night. I'm real sorry to have to tell you this.
I know you were counting on it for your
spring garden."
Jim replied, "Well bad luck is bad luck, you
really can't do anything about it. Where's
the mule now?"
"Oh, he's out back, I was just getting out the
backhoe to bury him. Hold on a minute while
I get your money for you."
"No, that wouldn't be right, I bought it, you
were just holding him as a favor, it's my
loss, not yours. But, if you will help me
load him in the truck, I'll see if I can recover
a little for him at the dog food plant."
Well, Jim loads up the mule and drives off.
A couple of months later the mule dealer
happens to drive by Jim's place and is
astonished to see Jim working his garden
on a NEW $4,000 garden tractor. Leaning
on the pickup horn, he calls Jim over and
asks him how in the world Jim managed
such a piece of equipment when a couple
of months before all he had was $125 for
a mule and the mule had died on him.
"Well", Jim explains, "After leaving with
the mule, I had this idea and I stopped off
at the local print shop and had 2,000 $2
raffle tickets printed up. Grand prize...
Gardening Equipment. Then I sold all
the raffle tickets to people around town."
"Yeah, but where did you get the
gardening equipment?"
"From you."
"No, I mean the equipment you had as
the raffle prize."
"Like I said, I got it from you."
"Man, all you got from me was a dead
mule."
"I know, that's what I raffled off."
"My goodness, Jim! You raffled off a
dead mule?! I'll bet it really made a lot
of people mad when they found out
about it."
"Naw, not really, the only one really
ticked off was the winner, and I gave
him his money back."
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