Farmer Brown once lived on a quiet rural highway but as time went by, the traffic slowly built up and eventually got so heavy and so fast that farmer Brown’s free range chickens were being run over by truck drivers.
The traffic got so bad, in fact, that his chickens were regularly being run over at a rate of three to six a week.
So, Farmer Brown called the local police station to complain and also to ask if they could do something to help.
“You’ve got to do something about all these people driving so fast and killing all my chickens”, he said to the local police officer. “This is crazy! All these cars and trucks speeding down this country road and killing my chickens, it’s not right”.
“What do you want me to do?”, asked the policeman.
“I don’t care”, said Farmer Brown, “just do something about those crazy truck drivers and find a way to make them drive slower!”
So, the next day the policeman had the Council erect a sign that said: SCHOOL CROSSING.
Three days later Farmer Brown called the police again and said, “You still have got to do something about these drivers. The ‘school crossing’ sign seems to make them go even faster!”
So the police came up with a new idea, and they put up a new sign that read: SLOW: CHILDREN AT PLAY.
Well, that really sped the the traffic up and Farmer Brown’s chickens were being killed more than ever.
Farmer Brown called the police again and said, “Your signs are no good. Can I put up my own sign?”
In order to get Farmer Brown off his back, hte police officer said, “Sure. Go ahead and put up your own sign”.
The phone calls to the police station stopped, but curiosity got the better of the officer, so he called Farmer Brown to see how things were going.
“How’s the problem with the speeding drivers, did you put up your sign?”, the police officer asked.
“Oh, I sure did and not one chicken has been killed since”, Farmer Brown replied.
The policeman was really curious and thought he had better go out and take a look at the sign that Farmer Brown had erected. He also thought the sign might be something the police could use elsewhere, to slow drivers down.
So he drove out to Farmer Brown’s house.
His jaw dropped the moment he saw the sign:
NUDIST COLONY: Slow down and watch out for chicks.
Image used under a Collective Commons License from https://www.needpix.com/photo/1840393/laying-hens-hen-poultry-chicken-farm-hens-agriculture-livestock-free-range
