COUGH IT UP
A dad walks into the market followed by his
ten-year-old son. The kid is
spinning a 25 cent piece in the air and catching it
between his teeth.
As they walk through the market someone bumps into
the boy at just the wrong
moment and the coin goes straight into his mouth
and lodges in his throat. He
immediately starts choking and going blue in the
face and Dad starts
panicking, shouting and screaming for help.
A middle-aged, fairly un-noticeable man in a gray
suit is sitting at a
coffee bar in the market reading his newspaper and
sipping a cup of coffee.
At the sound of the commotion he looks up, puts his
coffee cup down on the
saucer, neatly folds his newspaper and places it on
the counter. He gets up from his seat and makes his unhurried way across
the market.After reaching the boy (who is still standing, but
only barely) the man carefully takes hold of the kid's balls and
squeezes gently but firmly.
After a few seconds the boy convulses violently and
coughs up the 25 cent piece,which the man catches in his free hand.
Releasing the boy, the man hands the coin to the father and walks back to his
seat in the coffee bar without saying a word.
As soon as he is sure that his son has suffered no
lasting ill-effects, the father rushes over to the man and starts
effusively
thanking him. The man looks embarrassed and brushes off the father's
thanks As he's about to leave, the father asks one last question:
"I've never seen anybody do anything like that before - it was
fantastic - what are you, a surgeon or something like that?"
"Oh, good heavens no" the man replies "I work for the IRS."