Juan The Smuggler

"Juan The Smuggler"

Juan comes up to the Mexican border on his
bicycle. He's got two large bags over his shoulders.
The guard stops him and says, "What's in the bags?"

"Sand," answered Juan.

The guard says, "We'll just see about that ~ get
off the bike." The guard takes the bags and rips
them apart; he empties them out and finds nothing
in them but sand. He detains Juan overnight and
has the sand analyzed, only to discover that there
is nothing but pure sand in the bags.

The guard releases Juan, puts the sand into new
bags, hefts them onto the man's shoulders, and
lets him cross the border.

A week later, the same thing happens. The guard
asks, "What have you got?"

"Sand," says Juan.

The guard does his thorough examination and discovers
that the bags contain nothing but sand. He gives the
sand back to Juan, and Juan crosses the border on his
bicycle.

This sequence of events if repeated every day for three
years. Finally, Juan doesn't show up one day, and the
guard meets him in a Cantina in Mexico.

"Hey, Buddy," says the guard, "I know you are smuggling
something. It's driving me crazy. It's all I think about.....
I can't sleep. Just between you and me, what are you
smuggling?"

Juan sips his beer and says, "Bicycles."

******************************************

"Would You Be Scared?"

I was trying to get my seventh-grade history
class to understand how the Indians must have
felt when they first encountered the Spanish
explorers.

"How would you feel," I asked, "if someone
  showed up on your doorstep who looked very
different, spoke a strange language and wore
unusual clothes? Wouldn't you be a bit scared?"

"Nah," one boy answered, "I'd just figure it was
my sister's date."
Received on Wed May 5 17:35:26 2004