One day, a man walks into a antique shop in London.  Looking around, he
  notices a life-sized bronze sculpture of a cat in a dark corner. The
  sculpture is so intriguing, he decides he must buy it and asks the shopkeeper the
  price.
  "Twelve pounds for the cat, sir," the shopkeeper tells him, "and 100
  pounds for the story that goes with it." "I'll take the cat," says the man, "but 
  you can keep the story."
 
  The transaction completed, the man leaves the store with the bronze cat
  under his arm. As he crosses the street in front of the store, two cats
  emerge from an alley and fall into step behind him. Nervously looking over
  his shoulder, he begins to walk faster, but every time he passes another
  alley, more cats come out and follow him.
 
  By the time he's walked two streets, at least a hundred cats are at his
  heels, and people are beginning to point and shout. He walks even faster,
  and soon breaks into a trot as multitudes of cats swarm from alleys,
  basements, and abandoned cars. Many hundreds of cats are now at his
  heels, and as he sees the river at the bottom of the hill, he panics and
  starts to run full pelt.
 
  No matter how fast he runs, the cats keep up, hissing insanely, now not
  just hundreds, but thousands. He looks up and sees that he is running
  towards the edge of the River Thames, and the trail of cats is now several hundred
  yards long behind him.
 
  Making a mighty leap, he jumps onto a lamppost, grasping it with one arm
  while he hurls the bronze cat into the river. Clinging to the lamppost,he
  watches in amazement as the seething tide of cats surges over the banks
  into the river, where they drown.
 
  Amazed and almost dumbstruck, he makes his way back to the antique shop.
  "Ah, so you've come back for the story,"  says the shopkeeper.
  "No," says the man, "I was wondering if you have a bronze Ranger's
  fan.

Index