Aalice.278 net.jokes utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!mhtsa!alice!ark Sat Dec 19 00:07:39 1981 A Middle East Parable (no, this doesn't belong in net.jokes.q) A scorpion, who wanted to cross a river but could not swim, saw a frog on the river bank. "Frog," he said, "can you carry me across this river? I cannot swim." "If I carry you across," said the frog, "you will sting me and I will die." "I wouldn't do a thing like that! If I sting you, you will become paralyzed and unable to swim. Since you will be carrying me on your back, if you drown I will drown too." So the frog allowed the scorpion to hop on his back and carry him across the river. When they had gotten to the deepest part, the scorpion stung the frog. With anguish in his eyes, the frog turned to the scorpion and said, through the paralysis that was beginning to drag him down, "Why did you do this? We could have both lived and now we're both going to die! Why??!" The scorpion replied: "This is the Middle East." ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.