Wednesday, July 02, 2008

An Old Story

I used to love reading Reader's Digest when I was a kid. Then, only the US Edition was available and had some beautiful stories, jokes, as well as informative reads. At later stage if I remember correctly, the issues were released by RD's Japan office, and later still, their Hong Kong office. By the time the issues were locally released, I had lost interest in RD for many of the old sections were not to be found; Humour In Uniform, Life's Like That, Laughter The Best Medicine, as well as Drama In Real Life, were to me, the must read sections. And after reading Raden and Cikgu, I was somehow reminded of one of the many stories in RD, and are as below.

Who's The Smarter One Now?
This is a story of a construction crew tasked to dig a long trench in a suburb. As the trench work was not of a high priority, A, the supervisor, brought along only 2 workers with him, Siful and Naj (can't remember the exact names here).

After several days of digging, it crossed Siful's mind why he and Naj had to do all the hard work while A sleeps blissfully under the shade of a tree, and posed the question to Naj, who replied "I don't know. Why don't you ask A?" And that, was precisely what Siful did.

After climbing the long ladder out of the trench, Siful confronted A. "I want to know why Naj and I have to do all the hard work while you sleep all day long, and have a better pay than us?"

Knowing that Siful is not too bright a person, A decided it would be better to show rather than explain. As he stood up beside the big tree he said "See my left palm here? I want you to punch it as hard as you can. If you manage to do that, I'll go down into the trench and do your work while you can sleep all day long". A then put his left palm just in front of the tree.

Not wanting to miss an opportunity, Siful threw the hardest punch of his life. A, being a man of better experience, pulled his palm just before the punch landed, and instead of the palm, Siful punched the tree, and let out a scream of pain.

After bandaging Siful's right hand, A said "Now you know why I am here and you are down there? I am smarter than both of you put together. Now, go back to your work".

Siful went back down the trench. But before he could continue his work, Naj asked him "So, do you have the answer already?" And a smile lit up on Siful's face.

"Yes,"Siful said. "Now, I will show you why I am smarter than you. But first, you must punch my left palm as hard as you can". Being in the middle of the trench and far from its walls, Siful put his left palm in front of his face.

-/end.


ps. Read related story at Rocky's Bru and here.

22 comments:

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

kahkahhh...but being experienced not necessarily he is wiser. in fact, people on the street can offer a better solution to the recent oil crisis...

Ydiana said...

Salam Shah

Hehehe..downright funny. Hey, I 've heard this told to me before, but it involves, Samy, Joe and Supervisor. In their slang. It became my favorite joke, the only problem is, I laugh before I can finish the joke. But luckily everyone got it! Or they laughed at my 'laughing'...?

Unknown said...

Shah Dear....

Muahahahaha.... that is hilarious... and because you put up that monkey face photo on I imagine that Siful's face like that too! Hahahahaha

mOEha Aziz said...

salam akhi,

hehehe... enuf said... :)

cakapaje said...

Salam kerpie,

"being experienced not necessarily he is wiser"...you got that right, bro! ;)

cakapaje said...

Wa'alaikumusalam ydiana,

Hehe, this being an old joke, there's probably 1,000 versions of it already. But hmm, sure would like to hear one from you personally, one of these days ;)

cakapaje said...

Sala Queen Raden,

Hehe, unfortunately, I could not find a picture of a chimp with a bandaged face.

cakapaje said...

Wa'alaikumusalam ya Muha,

Hehe, glad you like it. Gladder still you are back online. May Allah s.w.t. bless you, my brother :)

Unknown said...

I thought he held his palm at his crotch.

cakapaje said...

Salam Cikgu,

Er...I thought he held it at the rear end ;)

Ydiana said...

You TWO.....!!!

cakapaje said...

ydiana,

Er...hi! Er...hey, don't blame me. After all, I have a teacher in Cikgu ;)

Unknown said...

Yes in the end it is always the cikgu who is wrong. I have a statutory declaration by doc tokasid who swore they saw you put a gun to my head to write those said words. I want a royal commission.

cakapaje said...

Cikgu,

Alamak! But then, I too was under duress from ydiana - she threatened not to allow me near her piano. Anyway, commission as in kamsen 10% can or not? ;)

Unknown said...

make it 25 percent and we settle it the sarkas way.

cakapaje said...

Cikgu,

Done! You the man! :)

Saya... said...

Salam....

I was reading the story,clicked on the link and realised you linked my poor Saifool...heh heh...

I too loved the US edition of RD, and got turned off after they started the regional editions...just ain't the same!

Ydiana said...

Hey, I believe this is a seditious act! So I am going to conveniently use the new sedition act against Cakapaje and Katataknak in the sarkas court. And I also demand a cut of the commission, 50% from each of you.

cakapaje said...

Wa'alaikumusalam Me..OB,

Hehe, fell into a wormhole straight to your galaxy ;)

And I'm very glad to note of our common interest in US RD, that's heartwarming since I rarely come across someone of the same wavelength.

cakapaje said...

ydiana,

Alamak! Like this, I go pokai and out of business lah - 50% to you and 25% to Cikgu! Think snowflake and mk would bail me out? :)

Saya... said...

ya, no one gives a hoot about the fact that they are going to attack IRAN. and no one sees the significance or the ramifications...nak protest depan US embassy???

JOM!!!!

cakapaje said...

Me...OB,

Am in the midst of writing an entry when your comment came in.

Er...talk on the impending attack on Iran now, is that, if you would believe it, will be spearheaded by the illegal pariah state. The US, as it was reported, are trying to concentrate on their Presidential Election. However, the pariah state will be getting the full US support, as they did with their attack on Iraq's nuclear site. But do tell me if the US protest goes on.