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THE
COFFIN
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A pretty woman was serving a life sentence in prison. Angry and
resentful about her situation, she had decided that she would
rather die than to live another year in prison.
Over the years she had
become good friends with one of the prison caretakers. His job,
among others, was to bury those prisoners who died in a graveyard
just outside the prison halls. When a prisoner died, the caretaker
rang a bell, which was heard by everyone.
The caretaker then got the
body and put it in a casket. Next, he entered his office to fill
out the death certificate before returning to the casket to nail
the lid shut. Finally, he put the casket on a wagon to take it to
the graveyard and bury it.
Knowing this routine, the
woman devised an escape plan and shared it with the caretaker. The
next time the bell rang; the woman would leave her cell and sneak
into the dark room where the coffins were kept.
She would slip into the
coffin with the dead body while the caretaker was filling out the
death certificate. When the care- taker returned, he would nail the
lid shut and take the coffin outside the prison with the woman in
the coffin along with the dead body. He would then bury the
coffin.
The woman knew there would
be enough air for her to breathe until later in the evening when
the caretaker would return to the graveyard under the cover of
darkness, dig up the coffin, open it, and set her free.
The caretaker was reluctant
to go along with this plan, but since he and the woman had become
good friends over the years, he agreed to do it. The woman waited
several weeks before someone in the prison died.
She was asleep in her cell
when she heard the death bell ring. She got up, picked the lock of
her cell, and slowly walked down the hallway. She was nearly caught
a couple of times. Her heart was beating fast. She opened the door
to the darkened room where the coffins were kept. Quietly in the
dark, she found the coffin that contained the dead body, carefully
climbed into the coffin and pulled the lid shut to wait for the
caretaker to come and nail the lid shut. Soon she heard footsteps
and the pounding of the hammer and nails. Even though she was very
uncomfortable in the coffin with the dead body, she knew that with
each nail she was one step closer to freedom. The coffin was lifted
onto the wagon and taken outside to the graveyard. She could feel
the coffin being lowered into the ground.
She didn't make a sound as
the coffin hit the bottom of the grave with a thud. Finally she
heard the dirt dropping onto the top of the wooden coffin, and she
knew that it was only a matter of time until she would be free at
last. After several minutes of absolute silence, she began to
laugh. She was free! She was free!
Feeling curious, she
decided to light a match to find out the identity of the dead
prisoner beside her. To her horror, she discovered that she was
lying next to the dead caretaker.
MORAL of the story: Many
people believe they have their life all figured out... but
sometimes it just doesn't turn out the way they planned
it.
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