Please Take It Out of There

One day a lady walked into a hat shop. The shopkeeper smiled and said, ‘Good afternoon, madam.’

‘Good afternoon,’ the lady answered. ‘There is a green hat with red flowers and blue leaves on it in your window. Will you please take it out of there.’

‘Yes, madam,’ the shopkeeper said. ‘I will be very pleased to do that for you.’ Usually ladies looked at a lot of hats before they chose one, and the shopkeeper got very tired. ‘Good,’ he thought, ‘I will sell this hat very quickly – and it has been in my window for a very long time.’

‘Do you want it in a box, madam,’ he asked, ‘or will you wear it?’

‘Oh, I don’t want it,’ she answered. ‘I only wanted you to take it out of your window. I pass your shop every day, and I hate to see the ugly thing there!’

(L.A. Hill, Elementary Stories for Reproduction, Oxford University Press)