A man went into a bank and said, "Hello," to the teller, with a big smile on his face. "I want to cash a check." The teller said, "Yes sir, that will be fine. Turn the check over, sign the check, give it to me, and I will give you your money."
The guy said, "No, I don't want to do that. You give me the money first, and then I will sign the check. If I sign the check first, you could take this check and not give me my money and then where would we be? You would have all the money, you would have the check, and I wouldn't have anything." He said, "Absolutely not!" The teller would not give in, so the man threw up his hands and said, "I will go to the bank down the street."
He went to the bank down the street and he had the same results.
Next, the man went to a third bank in town, spent 15 or 20 minutes arguing with the teller and demanding that he receive his money before giving up his check. But this teller had a different plan. He never lost his cool. What he did was, reach down from
beneath the desk, take a baseball bat, hit the man over the head and said, "Sign the check!"
The man was stunned. In a daze, he signed the check, got his money, and after the transaction was complete, he went back to the first bank and said, "See, I got my money!"
The teller said, "You got your money, but I bet you
they asked you to sign the check first." The man replied, "Yes...but no one ever explained it to me like they did."
And, that is often the way life is. Someone has to hit you over the head until you will get the message. Don't get stuck on a circular spiritual path waiting for a punch to your noggin. Pre-emptive strike. Get wise before you get hurt.
