An art connoisseur passed a little grocery in New York when he noticed a kitten on the front step lapping up some milk in a bowl. The cat was mangy with one ear half chewed off and clumps of fur missing. What really caught the collectors eye was the bowl the kitten was drinking from. It was a rare antique worth thousands. He walks in the store and offers $20.00 for the cat. “He’s not for sale.” Says the store owner. “That’s ridiculous!” Says the collector. “He is one of the ugliest cats I’ve seen. He must be for sale. I’ll give you $100.00 for him.” The store owner thought for a second and said “It’s a deal.” The connoisseur hands the store owner the money, which he quickly pockets, and as he starts out the store asks “For that price I’m sure you wont mind sending that old bowl with him. He seems so happy drinking from it.” The store owner says ” No way. That’s my lucky bowl. From that bowl I’ve sold 26 cats this week!”
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Three sons left home, went out on their own and prospered. Getting back together, they discussed the gifts they were able to give their elderly mother.
The first said, “I built a big house for our mother.”
The second said, “I sent her a Mercedes with a driver.”
The third smiled and said, “I’ve got you both beat. Remember how mom enjoyed reading the Bible? And you know she can’t see very well. I sent her a remarkable parrot that recites the entire Bible. It took elders in the church 12 years to teach him. He’s one of a kind. Mama just has to name the chapter and verse, and the parrot recites it.”
Soon thereafter, mom sent a letter to each son. “Milton,” she wrote one son, “the house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house.”
“Gerald,” she wrote to another, “I am too old to travel. I stay most of the time at home, so I rarely use the Mercedes. And the driver is so rude!”
“Dearest Donald,” she wrote to her third son, “you have the good sense to know what your mother likes. The chicken was delicious.”