A tourist walked into a curio shop in San Francisco. Looking around at the exotica, he noticed a very lifelike, life-size bronze statue of a rat. It had no price tag, but it was so striking he decided he must have it. He asked the owner, "How much for the bronze rat?"

"Twelve dollars for the rat. One hundred dollars for the story," said the owner.

The tourist gave the man twelve dollars. "I'll take the rat. You can keep the story."

As he walked down the street carrying his bronze rat, he noticed that a few real rats had crawled out of the alleys and sewers and they were following him down the street. This was disconcerting. He began trotting.

Within a couple of blocks, the herd of rats had grown to hundreds, and they were squealing. He ran toward the bay. He looked around and saw that the rats now numbered in the MILLIONS, they were squealing loudly, and they were coming toward him fast.

Scared, he ran to the edge of the bay and threw the bronze rat as far out into the bay as he could. Amazingly, the millions of rats all jumped into the bay after it, and they all drowned.

The man walked back to the curio shop. "Aha," said the owner, "you
have come back for the story?"

"No," said the man. "I came back to see if you have a bronze Democrat."