A Parable for our Times

[MelissaB]

Whitey the farmer was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens), called "pullets" and eight or ten roosters, whose job was to fertilize the eggs. Whitey kept records, and any rooster that didn't perform, went into the soup pot, and was replaced.

That took an awful lot of his time, so he bought a set of tiny bells, and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so Whitey could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing.

Now he could sit on the porch, and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells.

Whitey's favorite rooster was old Butch, and a very fine specimen he was, too. But on this particular morning Whitey noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all!

Whitey went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.

But to Farmer Whitey's amazement, Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job, and walk on to the next one.

Whitey was so proud of Butch, he entered him in the Polk County Fair, and Butch became an overnight sensation among the judges.

The result...

The judges not only awarded Butch the No Bell Piece Prize, but they also
awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.

Clearly, Butch was a politician in the making: who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace, and screwing them when they weren't paying attention?