Jokes that Teach

Title: First You Catch His Attention

As a farmboy wandered down a dusty Georgia road one day, he looked up into a field and saw a husky big brown mule pulling a plow, but without anybody guiding the plow.

Under a huge nearby oak tree, a scruffy Oldtimer in bib overalls was taking a snooze while the mule plowed the field by himself.

Astonished by this amazing and well-trained mule, he walked across the plowed field and woke the Oldtimer and said

“That certainly is a wonderfully well trained mule … What do you want for him?”

The Oldtimer scratched and thought for a moment and then asked “Is $75 too much?”

The boy was so flabbergasted at the super low price for such a valuable trained mule, that he quickly paid for it.

He asked the Oldtimer how he got the mule to plow by himself and the Oldtimer said “I just harness him up and take him to the end of the furrow and tell him “Mule, Plow that field!”

So the kid took the mule home with him to plow his own fields.

The next day, he took the mule to the end of the furrow and told the mule “Mule, Plow that field” … but the mule didn’t budge. He told the mule again and the mule just stood there and looked at him. He told him several times more and the mule just sat there and refused to plow by himself.

So the next day, the farmboy walked back over to the Oldtimer’s place and saw the Oldtimer taking a nap again … but this time, there was a brindle colored mule plowing by himself while the Oldtimer snoozed.

So he woke up the Oldtimer and complained that the mule he had bought wouldn’t plow.

The Oldtimer said “That’s pretty unusual, why that mule sure works ‘right’ for me … maybe you did something wrong … tell me what you did.”

The farmboy said “Well, I harnessed him up and took him to the end of the furrow and told him ‘Mule, Plow that field’ … just like you told me to do.

“OH!” said the Oldtimer, “THAT’S what you did wrong … ”

“What do you mean?” said the farmboy … “I did exactly what you told me to do … I harnessed him up and took him to the end of the furrow and told him ‘Mule, Plow that field'”

“Yes” said the Oldtimer “… but you didn’t Catch his Attention, first”

“What do you mean … Catch his Attention, first?”, said the Farmboy.

“Well”, the Oldtimer said “you harness him up and take him to the end of the furrow just like I said before … and then you take a 2×4 and hit him right between the eyes with all your might to catch his attention, AND THEN you tell him ‘Mule, Plow that field … then he’ll plow”.