Friday, August 26, 2005

Sometimes the Arab Wins

An old Egyptian-American man lived alone in Idaho. He wanted to do the annual digging and hoeing of his potato garden, but it was very hard work for a 70-year old man.

His only son, Abdul, who used to help him, was being held by the US military at Guantanamo Bay as a terrorist suspect. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.

My Dearest Son,

I miss you badly. I am feeling pretty miserable because it looks like I won't be able to plant potatoes in our garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up the garden by myself. How wonderful it would be if only you were here. I know you would dig up the plot for me.


Your Dad,
Mohammad.


A few days later he received a letter from his son.

My Beloved Dad,

In the name of Allah swt, don't dig up that garden, don't touch anything or even walk in it. The jinn, if you know what I mean, lies beneath the soil.

Love,
Abdul.


At 5 am the next morning, FBI agents and local police showed up with all sorts of earth-moving machinery and dug up the entire area several times without finding any weapons. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Dad,

Go ahead and plant the potatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.

Love
Abdul

;-) modified from an email I received

2 comments:

  1. This is the best story I've heard all week...

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  2. Xaccers - I first heard this in that old BBC comedy with Ronny Baker; Porridge.

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