A little old lady was walking down the street, dragging two large plastic garbage bags behind her. The bags were bulky, and one of them had a tear in it. As she shuffled along, $20 bills would occasionally fall out and flutter onto the sidewalk. Passersby couldn’t help but notice the money scattering behind her, but the elderly woman seemed oblivious to it. The bills would land in a trail, catching the attention of anyone nearby.
A policeman, who was patrolling the area, noticed the scene and approached her. He raised an eyebrow and said, “Ma’am, there are $20 bills falling out of that bag.” The old lady stopped for a moment, looking down at the scattered bills. “Oh, really? Darn it!” she exclaimed, as if it were an unfortunate mistake. “I’d better go back and see if I can find them. Thanks for telling me, officer.”
The policeman, curious about the situation, wasn’t sure whether this was just a mistake or something more suspicious. “Well, now, not so fast,” he said, his tone becoming more serious. “Where did you get all that money? You didn’t steal it, did you?” The old lady’s eyes widened in surprise, and she quickly shook her head. “Oh, no, no,” she reassured him. “You see, my backyard is right next to the football stadium parking lot.”
The policeman listened intently, still puzzled by her response. The little old lady continued, “On game days, a lot of fans come and pee through a knot hole in the fence, right into my flower garden. It used to really tick me off. Kills the flowers, you know.” She paused for a moment, remembering the frustration she had once felt. The policeman stood there, not sure what to make of her story.
The old lady then brightened, as if she had found a solution to her problem. “Then I thought, ‘Why not make the best of it?’” she said with a mischievous grin. “So, now, on game days, I go out there with these garbage bags. I collect all the money that the fans toss over the fence after they’ve relieved themselves!” She chuckled, a twinkle in her eye as if she were quite proud of her unique way of dealing with the situation.
The policeman stood there for a moment, processing her words. He was taken aback by her creative solution to an odd problem. Finally, after a long pause, he shook his head with a smile. “Well, ma’am, I guess you’ve found a way to make lemonade out of lemons,” he said, before turning to leave. The old lady smiled and continued on her way, dragging her bags and leaving a trail of $20 bills in her wake.