A Genius Genie

We dusted off an oldie-but-goodie in honor of classic vehicles:

Bennie was a janitor at the LeMay collections. One afternoon, he was polishing a large vase that had somehow been pushed into a corner and neglected. He’d barely begun polishing when smoke curled up from the vase and coalesced into a genie.

“Master,” it said, “I am the Genie of the Urn. I can grant you three wishes, but there is one condition. You must never shave or cut your beard from this day henceforward. If you do, you must take my place in the urn.”

Bennie didn’t take long to think about it. “I can quit shaving,” he said. “These are my three wishes. I want to own a third of Microsoft’s shares. I want a beautiful, loving wife. I want fame.”

His wishes were granted instantly, and he became a famous millionaire with a gorgeous wife. And his beard grew and grew and grew.

One very hot, humid day many years later, when his beard trailed on the floor unless he tied it up, the itching became almost unbearable. The memory of the genie’s one condition had faded. Bennie shaved his beard.

In a flash, he was imprisoned in the vase, destined to remain there forever.

The moral of this story is:

A Benny shaved is a Benny urned.