Farmer John had a home on a peaceful country road.
With time, the roads became crowded and more drivers filled the streets. There were so many cars and they were going so fast that Mr. Norton’s chickens were being run over about three to six times a day.
So Farmer John called the sheriff and complained, “Something has to be done about this rush of fast drivers who keep k.i.lling all my chickens.”
“What can I do for you?” the sheriff asked.
“Forget it, do whatever you can to address those reckless drivers!”
The next day, the sheriff had the county workers hang a sign on the post saying: SLOW–SCHOOL CROSSING
Three days passed and Farmer John contacted the sheriff to take action against the drivers. When they see the ‘school crossing’ sign, they often accelerate.
So the sheriff tells the county workforce to put up another new sign that reads: SLOW: CHILDREN AT PLAY
That helped them go much quicker. For three weeks, Farmer John kept calling and calling and calling.
In the end, he told the sheriff, “Your signs are useless. Can I display a sign in my own area?”
The sheriff replied, “Of course, you can put up a sign to advertise.” He planned to let Farmer John do anything in the hopes that he would stop complaining so often.
There were no more calls from Farmer John to the sheriff. After three weeks, interested in the case, the sheriff decided to contact Farmer John. How are you handling the problem with the drivers? Did you place your sign outside?”
Yes, I did at the time. No chickens have been k.i.lled since that happened. I must leave for now. I have a lot going on at the moment. Todd disconnected the call.
With his curiosity growing, the sheriff decided to look at that sign himself and thought, “That might give us an idea for reducing the number of accidents…”
He traveled out to Farmer John’s house and he was shocked when he spotted the sign. The stencil was spray-painted onto wood and just read NU.DIST COLONY
