The Bronze Rat




A tourist wanders into a back-alley antique shop in San Francisco's
Chinatown.  Picking through the objects on display he discovers a
detailed bronze sculpture of a rat.  The sculpture is so interesting
and unique that he picks it up and asks the shop owner the price.

"Twelve dollars for the rat, sir," says the shop owner, "and an extra
thousand for the story behind it."
 
"At that price, you can keep the story, old man," he replies, "but
I'll take the bronze rat."
 
The transaction complete, the tourist leaves the store with the
bronze rat under his arm.  As he crosses the street in front of the
store, two live rats emerge from a sewer drain and fall into step
behind him.
 
Nervously looking over his shoulder, he begins to walk faster, but
every time he passes another sewer, more rats come out and follow
him.  By the time he's walked two blocks, at least a hundred rats are
at his heels, and people begin to point and shout.  He walks even
faster, and soon breaks into a trot as multitudes of rats swarm from
sewers, basements, vacant lots, and abandoned cars... following him.

Rats by the thousands are at his heels, and as he sees the waterfront
at the bottom of the hill he panics and starts to run full tilt.

No matter how fast he runs, the  rats keep up, squealing hideously
now not just thousands but millions, so that by the time he comes
racing to the water's edge a trail of  rats twelve blocks long is
behind him.
 
Making a mighty leap, he jumps up onto a lamp post, grasping it with
one arm, while he hurls the bronze rat into San Francisco Bay as far
as he can throw it.
 
Pulling his legs up and clinging to the post, he watches in amazement
as the seething tide of rats surges over the breakwater into the sea,
where they drown.
 
Shaken and mumbling, he makes his way back to the antique shop.
 
"Ah sir, you've come back for the story,"  says the owner.
 
"No," says the tourist,  "I was just hoping you had a bronze
sculpture of a lawyer "