The Tourist from Hamelin

.. story of the tourist from Hamelin who walked into a Berlin curio shop.

After looking around for a while, she noticed a very life-like bronze statue of a rat. It had no price tag, but it was so striking that she decided to have it anyway.

So she took it to the owner and said: "How much is this bronze rat?"

The owner replied: "It is EUR 12 for the rat, and EUR 100 for the story."

Well the Hamelin tourist gave the man his EUR 12 and said: "I'll just take the rat - you can keep the story."

As she walked off down the street, she noticed that a few real rats had crawled out of the sewers and begun following her.

This was a little disconcerting, so she started to walk a little faster, but within a couple of blocks the swarm of rats had grown to hundreds, and they were all squealing & screeching in a very menacing way.

She increased her speed & ran on towards the ‘River Spree’, and as she ran, she looked behind her and saw the rats now numbered in their MILLIONS, and they were running faster & faster.

By now very concerned, she ran to the bank of the river and threw the bronze rat far out into the water.

Amazingly, the millions of real rats jumped into the water after it and were all drowned.

The Hamelin tourist walked back to relate all this to the shop owner, who said:

"Ah, you've come back for the story then!"

"No," said the Hamelin tourist - "I came back to see if you've got a bronze of an EU Commissioner or MEP
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