Flight of fancy
A landlord was strolling through his estates when he met one of his tenants who presented him a hamper containing a roast chicken and a bottle of grape juice.
The landlord saw one of his servant boys going past and called him and asked him to take the hamper home.
"Don't open it on the way," he warned. "It contains a live bird and a bottle of poison. If you open the basket, the bird will fly away!"
The boy, however was not to be fooled. As soon as he was out of sight of his master, he ducked behind some bushes and opened the hamper. The sight of the chicken made him drool.
When the landlord reached home and learnt that the boy had not brought the hamper, he was furious and went in search of him. He found him sleeping contentedly under a tree. He kicked him awake and demanded to know what had happened to his hamper.
"I - I did a very bad thing," said the boy, "I - I opened the hamper."
"You did, eh!" said the landlord, grimly. "You ate it, didn't you?"
"Ate what master?" asked the boy, innocently. The moment I opened it, the bird hopped out and flew away."
The landlord didn't know what to say. Then he remembered the grape juice.
"And what happened to the juice?!" he asked triumphantly.
The boy said,"I was so ashamed of what I had done and so fearful of what you would do that I decided to end my life. I drank the bottle of poison to the last drop and now I am waiting for it to take effect. Goodbye, master!"
The landlord aimed another kick at him and stumbled back to his house, feeling rather foolish at being outsmarted by a small boy.
