I WANT TO BUY AN HOUR

A man came home from work late again, tired and irritated. He found his 5-year-old son waiting for him at the door. "Daddy, may I ask you a question?"

The dad replied: "Yeah, sure, what is it?"

"Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?"

The dad got mad and said, "That's none of your business! Why do you want to know?"

The little boy said, "I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?"

The dad, wanting to sit down and relax, said, "If you must know, I make $20 an hour."

The little boy sighed and bowed his head. Looking up, he asked, "Daddy, may I borrow $10 please?"

The father flew off the handle, "If the only reason you wanted to know how much money I make is so that you can hit me up for some cash to buy some stupid toy, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. You're so selfish. I work long, hard hours every day and don't have time for this."

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The dad sat down and started to get even madder about the nerve of his little boy. How dare he ask questions only to get some money. After an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think that maybe he was a bit hard on his boy. Maybe his son really needed the money for something important. And so, the father went up to his boy's room and opened it, "Are you asleep, son?"

"No daddy. I'm awake," replied the boy.

"I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier. It's been a long day, and I took it out on you. Here's that 10 bucks you asked for."

The little boy sat straight up, beaming. "Oh, thank you, daddy!" he exclaimed. Then, reaching under his pillow, he pulled out a wad of crumpled up bills.

The dad, seeing that the boy already had some money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his dad.

The dad, now ticked off, demanded to know what was going on, "Why did you want more money if you already had some?"

The little boy replied, "Because I didn't have enough, but now I do. Daddy, I have $20 now...and I'd like to buy an hour of your time."