A man came home from work late again, tired and irritated, to find his
5 year old son waiting for him at the door. "Daddy, may I ask you a
question ?" "Yeah, sure, what is it ?" replied the man. "Daddy, how
much money do you make an hour?" "That's none of your business!
What makes you ask such a thing?" the man said angrily.
"I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?"
pleaded the little boy. "If you must know, I make $20.00 an hour."
"Oh," the little boy replied, head bowed. Looking up, he said,
"Daddy, may I borrow $10.00 please?" The father was furious. "If the
only reason you wanted to know how much money I make is just so
you can borrow some to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense,
then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think
about why you're being so selfish. I work long, hard hours everyday
and don't have time for such childish games." The little boy quietly went
to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even
madder about the little boy's questioning. How dare he ask such questions
only to get some money.
After an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think
he may have been a little hard on his son. Maybe there was something
he really needed to buy with that $10.00 and he really didn't ask for one very often.
The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.
"Are you asleep son?" he asked. "No daddy, I'm awake," replied the
boy. "I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier," said
the man. "It's been long day and I took my aggravation out on you.
Here's that $10.00 you asked for."
The little boy sat straight up, beaming. "Oh, thank you daddy!"he
yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out some more
crumpled up bills. The man, seeing that the boy already had money,
started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his
money, then looked up at the man.
"Why did you want more money if you already had some?" the father
grumbled. "Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little
boy replied. "Daddy, I have $20.00 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?"