The Value of a Mule

A used car salesman retired and moved to the country. He bought a yearling stallion and a couple mares.

He thought his pastoral life was pretty sweet, until the stallion started misbehaving.

So, he asked his neighbor down the road what to do.

"You need a mule." the old farmer said.

"Will that help?" the salesman asked. "Absolutely. The only thing more pig-headed than a young stallion is a mule. He'll have that horse playing second fiddle in no time."

"Well do you have a mule I could buy?"

"Sure do. I'll sell you Murphy, he's a great mule, and i'll only charge you $100."
The salesman thought that was a great deal, and handed the farmer the $100 straight away.

Later that week, he came by to pick up the mule.

"I'm here to pick up Murphy!" the salesman announced. "You know, I hate to be the bearer of bad news," the farmer said, "but Murphy died two nights ago.

"Well, can I have my $100 back then?"
"No, I spent it already, I can pay you back, it'll just be a while."

"Never mind that, I'll just take the dead mule."
"What do you want with a dead mule?"

"Does it matter? I'm paying you $100 for a dead mule."
The farmer shrugged, and figured if this guy wants to buy a dead mule, that's on him. So he helped load it up.

Several weeks later, the farmer met the salesman in passing, and just could not help but ask him about the mule.

"How did you ever come out on that dead mule?"
"Great. I made $98 profit on that mule."
The farmer couldn't believe it.

"How did you get someone to pay $198 for a dead mule?"
"I didn't. I had a raffle, and the winner got the mule. I sold 100 tickets at $2 apiece."

"But wasn't the winner upset when he found out the mule was dead?"
"Of course he was." said the salesman. "So I gave him his $2 back.