A woman walks into a curio shop in San Francisco. Looking around at the exotica, she notices a very lifelike, life-sized bronze statue of a rat. It has no price tag, but is so striking she decides she must have it. She takes it to the owner: “How much for the bronze rat?”
“Twelve dollars for the rat, a hundred dollars for the story,” says the owner.
The woman gives the shop-owner twelve dollars. “I’ll just take the rat, you can keep the story.”
As she walks down the street carrying this bronze rat, she notices that a few real rats have crawled out of alleys and sewers, and begun following her down the street. This is a bit disconcerting, so she begins walking a little faster. Within a couple blocks, the group of rats behind her grows to over a hundred, and they begin squealing. She starts to trot toward the Bay. She takes a nervous look around and sees that the rats now number in the thousands, maybe millions- -and they are all squealing and coming toward her faster and faster. Terrified, she runs to the edge of the Bay, and throws the bronze rat as far out into the Bay as she can. Amazingly, the millions of rats all jump into the Bay after it, and are all drowned.
The woman walks back to the curio shop.
“Ah ha,” says the owner, “I’ll bet you have come back for the story?”
“No,” said the woman, “I came back to see if you have a bronze Republican.”
